


Come Back Home

by Basnatural



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anal Sex, Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, Family, Family Drama, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Masturbation, Oral Sex, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Weddings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-03-31 14:05:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 32,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13976703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Basnatural/pseuds/Basnatural
Summary: After dropping everything to help the only remaining family member who would talk to him, Josh returns to Columbus to a surprise and total change in his family dynamic.But it is someone who is an integral part of this change that will eventually lead Josh back to where he belongs, but there will be troubles along the way.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> So, here it is, the AU no one asked for! I have a number of other WIP going on at the same time, but have a lot of this planned out already, so I hope to update weekly if not more often. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think. It was an idea that literally popped into my head from nowhere and for some reason it is not leaving me alone!!
> 
> Big love as always to Basttop who lets me bounce my ideas off of her.

The sky had opened, and thick heavy raindrops fell from it like something out of the latest Hollywood apocalypse blockbuster. Soon, the sidewalk was spattered with ankle deep puddles of freezing water, ready for some unsuspecting passer-by to step in and scream and shout in indignation. Quite why anyone could be surprised that on this cold early November day, nature could possibly be so hostile was still an unknown, but the man behind the counter had seen the same scenario play out over and over during his week of back shifts.

 

Behind a large white enclosed desk that made up the service area of the store, Josh Dun was sitting, perched on a tall, brown plastic bar chair with his chin resting in his hand. He stares at the weather outside, trying to make out the differences between shadows and people as they run through the pools of light from the streetlamps that had switched on automatically as soon as the sun had gone down. Suddenly feeling the cold as a gust of wind whistled through the centre, he pulls the long sleeved layer he had thrown on under he faded grey NASA t-shirt over his hands and bunches them into fists. Bouncing his leg up and down to try and get some more heat into him, he feels the familiar movement also start to steady his nerves a bit. The bright strip lights above flicker slightly as if also in protest at still having to work at this time of night.

 

Josh had only moved back into the area a month previously and had managed to land the job at Guitar Center on his first day looking. It helped that he was musical and played the drums – and as luck would have it the store manager was looking for someone who had a working knowledge of percussion. Thankfully it was as far away from the part of town he wanted to avoid, but as close to his aunt and new address that he could get. It was steady money and he got to play the drums as much as he wanted when the store had closed – something that was not currently an option with his own set in storage back in Los Angeles. He sighed loudly as he remembers his prized SJC set sitting locked up in some draughty storage bin, just waiting for him to go back and bust them out. Sadly, it looked like that wasn’t going to be happening for a while.

 

Pulling his beanie off, he runs his hand through his dark brown unruly curls that were growing thick and fast on top of his head and he sighs loudly. He couldn’t wait for the day that his six months was up and he would be able to start dying it again, but he had ruined it after colouring and re-colouring his hair so many times in a such a short time frame that he had had to completely shave it and start again. He pulls his grey knitted hat back onto his head and arranges it so it is sitting ‘just right’.

 

He flicks his wrist up and glances at the time. Eight exactly. Another hour to go before he got to officially lock the doors and do what he wanted. The death shift was the worst, and with this being the sixth in a row for him, Josh was almost dead on his feet. A noise comes from the windows and he glances up to see a young couple, about seventeen or eighteen years old, push their way through the doors, laughing happily and clutching each other’s hands.

 

“Hey, guys, welcome to Guitar Center, can I help you at all?” Josh smiles from behind the desk and raises his eyebrows to assist with the question. The guy – an all American, blond haired and blue eyed jock in a local school’s red and yellow letterman jacket – looks at him and just waves him off, not even bothering to answer properly. He drags his brunette girlfriend to the back of the store where the wide selection of guitars all hang – the Fenders and Gibson’s immediately grabbing the guy’s attention.

 

Josh rolls his eyes at the rudeness and goes back to drumming a beat against the edge of the formica he was trapped behind for the next sixty minutes, keeping the couple in the corner of his eye to make sure they didn’t do anything that might mess up the displays.

 

He chuckles to himself as he realises exactly how different his life was now. Two months before he had been living in L.A, session drumming for a range of artists, getting his name out there and living his dream. Now, he was back in his home town, sitting in a store surrounded by instruments he wished he could just play all the time instead of just looking at them, and counting the seconds until he was free. He was sleeping on an old leather sofa in the living room of his aunt’s tiny two-bedroom apartment trying to help her deal with her nightmare of a teenage son.  

 

It was amazing what one small email could do to change everything.

 

The plea had pinged into his inbox at four in the morning, but he hadn’t actually looked at it until he had rolled out of his bed after a hard night drinking and partying with the new up and coming band he had been drumming for that night.

 

Sarah was his father’s sister. She was tall and shapely and shared the same nose that Josh seemed to have inherited from his father’s side of the family. She had the same brown eyes and thick brown, wavy hair that fell to graze her shoulders, with salon blond highlights running through the ends – the one thing of her previous life that she still held on to.

 

He had always been close to the woman, but when Sarah met her ex, she seemed to distance herself from them all and they only really saw each other at large family gatherings and always with a sharp eye from her partner over her shoulder. It had been a real cry for help when she had reached out to him and Josh was more than willing to step up.

 

He remembered standing at the large stainless steel sink in his sparse open plan kitchen – part of his easy living, fully furnished LA loft he had managed to get a steal from a producer friend he had… _negotiated with_ \- in a manner of speaking - when he had started his music career. He had filled a large hi-ball glass with cold water from the dispenser and was re-hydrating as he flicked through his notifications and noticed the one email with a red exclamation mark next to it and a subject line of ‘ _Help_ ’, and that afternoon he was organising how to get out of his lease, planning storage space and getting out of his upcoming music commitments.

 

His aunt had been left in dire straits after her ex-partner had moved out to live with his assistant of half his age, and not even half the intelligence of his son’s mother. Leaving her to deal with a self-indulgent high schooler who had no idea about the value of money and having to move from a brand new five bed into the shoebox he now shared with her had wiped out Josh’s savings. He didn’t resent her. She was all the family he now had left.

 

“Hey, dude, you in there?” Josh is rudely brought back to the present as he forces his eyes to focus at the person talking to him.

 

The jock was cockily leaning into Josh’s space and he realises quickly before jumping out of his seat and backing up to stand up straight and help the guy. His girlfriend chuckled at the sight that Josh had clearly made.

 

“Sorry dude, can I help?” Josh asks, trying to calm down his racing heart and plastering a smile on his face.

 

The blond looks him up and down and can feel him taking in his entire appearance. He knows people like this guy in front of him and his anxiety starts kicking in again. The clean cut, all American guy, probably captain of whatever his sport of choice was – from the look of him Josh would guess that it would be football with the wide shoulders and solid frame.

 

“Nice piercings,” the guy finally says to him, but with a smirk that told Josh that he meant the total opposite. Josh actually thanked his higher power that he had decided to put in his plain wooden gauges that morning instead of his flashier red neon ones. His nose ring was the normal thin gold that hadn’t changed since he had had the piercing done years earlier.

 

“Thanks, is that everything?” he gestures to the pack of the most expensive guitar picks the guy could have chosen. The customer nods, and Josh picks up the pack and scans it through the till and rings up the sale. “That’s twenty dollars. I take it you’ve got a nice piece at home? Haven’t seen you in here before,” he adds, thinking that if he gets a bit more information from him maybe he could try and avoid him in the future.

 

“What’s it to you, creep?” the guy replies and holds out the familiar green note with Andrew Jackson staring at him. Josh goes to take the bill and the kid purposefully drops it before Josh fully has a hand on it causing it to flutter to the floor.

 

Josh looks at the kid and then at the floor, and starts to bite on his lower lip to stop the tirade of abuse that was trying to break out of his mouth.

 

“Oops,” the brunette girl says with a giggle as Josh bends to the floor with a groan to pick up the money.

 

_‘Give him the picks, then he’ll go,’_ becomes his chant in his head as he finishes the sale, hands him a plastic bag of his purchase, receipt and leaflet for an upcoming beginners guitar group.

 

“Thank you for shopping at Guitar Center, please think of us for all of your future needs,” he forces out through gritted teeth and watches as the pair leave the shop and hopefully him behind them forever.

 

Flicking his wrist again he sees that he still has half an hour until closing, but he decides that it’s not worth it. The parking lot is completely deserted apart from his black Prius he had driven back from L.A and it was now raining even harder. Flipping the OPEN sign to CLOSED he clicks the lock and moans in relief as he realises he no longer has to keep his customer pleasing face on.

 

He claps his hands together and rubs them with excitement as he pulls his phone out of his pocket and queues up a whole load of familiar songs on Spotify before heading out to where the full drum set was in permanent set up in the back of the store.

 

The set that his store had set up was one that Josh loved the look of, but when he played it, he never felt as comfortable as he did behind his own set. He runs his hand over the purple lacquered wood of the floor toms and the snare rums before flicking the cymbal with his fingernail before disappearing into his bag to find his drumsticks – something he never left home without.

 

Unzipping the main compartment of his black and white chequered back pack with the mini Mario in the front corner, he digs through papers and post he was trying to ignore until it became important. He finally grabs one of his maple sticks and leans against one of the counters while he found the other one.

 

Vibrations from his wrist stop him mid rummage and he realises he can also hear the tone that had been assigned to his aunt coming from the desk nearby.

 

“Crap,” he mutters, and drops his bag at his feet before moving quickly over to his cell.

 

“Hey Sarah,” he greets her as he slides the phone unlocked and brings it to his ear.

 

“Josh, I’m really sorry, but we’ve got a bit of a situation here. Can you come straight home and help out?” the familiar voice comes through the speaker. He sighs as lightly as he can and drops his head forward.

 

“Yeah, cool,” he tells her finally. “I’m just finishing up and then I’ll be on my way,” he assures her.

 

“Thank you! Oh my goodness, what would I do without you?” she gushes and he can’t help but smile to himself.

 

“Nah, you’d be fine,” Josh replies almost instantly like he always did.

 

“Love you Joshie,” she says, saying his childhood nickname, and he smiles sadly as he hangs up the phone.

 

Stashing the handset in his back jeans pocket, he sighs again and runs his hands over his face. He walks back to the drum kit and strokes it longingly.

 

“Sorry, baby, rain check?” he says to it, only slightly worrying about his own mental state that his only decent conversation came from an inanimate musical instrument.

 

Stuffing everything into the bag again, he walks to the back of the shop, turns off all of the lights, sets the alarm and lets himself out of the employee exit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the drum kit if you were interested. No it's not Josh's but wow, I love it and if I could play I would totally be getting this!!  
> http://www.guitarcenter.com/DW/Collectors-Series-Purpleheart-7-Piece-Lacquer-Specialty-Shell-Pack-Natural-to-Black-Burst-with-Black-Nickel-Hardware.gc#productDetail
> 
> Also, please leave me comments if you want to. I love all constructive criticism so lay it on me!!


	2. Chapter 2

The light was shining through the threadbare sky blue curtains and flashing onto Josh’s eyes, finally disturbing his sleep too much and leading him to reluctantly open his eyes, yawning and stretching above him. His fist bumps against the empty glass that he had left on the table at the side of the sofa when he fell asleep the previous evening. He jumps up quickly before it can clatter to the floor, spilling it’s remaining contents all over the brown carpet that covered the living room.

 

He groans loudly after securing the glass, and sits upon his make shift bed, rubbing at his eyes. Still sitting he carries out his normal morning routine – folding up his blankets so they can be stored with his pillow in Sarah’s bedroom until they were needed.

 

“Good morning,” a semi-cheery voice greets him from behind and Josh inches round in his seat so he can relax back and turn to see his aunt coming through the door in the main room of the apartment.

 

Josh grunts back at his aunt in greeting, but does get up off of the leather and gives her a quick one armed hug as he passes her to perform his normal bathroom tasks before Jamie woke up and became prince of the household again.

 

The bathroom was off of the main bedroom, and consisted of a tiny shower cubicle with an almost non-existent white shower curtain and fixed shower head. He uses the toilet, showers as quickly as he can and ties his towel around his waist while he brushes his teeth.

 

With one hand he wipes through the condensation gathered on the bathroom mirror and he stares at his reflection. He knows objectively he was attractive. He had traded on it in the past, and wasn’t that just one of the many items on the list that his mother had compiled of his flaws and reasons for hating him.

 

Until the year Josh started high school, he had had the typical family life. He was the eldest son of traditional parents and his sister Ashley came along two years later, followed by Jordan and Abi. High school was the turning point. Josh realised he was different from most of the people around him. He had a real interest in music, didn’t want to do the expected college route and – worst of all, especially for his mother – liked boys.

 

He came out spectacularly to his parents after a monumental argument when he was caught sneaking out to hang out with his friends at the local arcade. After that nothing was ever really the same again. His father had told him he was always going to be proud of him no matter what and encouraged Josh to go after what he wanted in his life. His mom, however, stayed quiet over the whole affair. She never said much to him unless his dad was present after that and she always seemed to hate leaving his brother and sisters alone with Josh – no matter the reason.

 

Josh felt uncomfortable all the time in the one place he was meant to feel safe and protected. That’s not to say he was abused or neglected. No, he would never say that. His dad was brilliant and included him in everything. He had always been close to Bill Dun and after Josh admitted his sexuality, they only seemed to get closer. Bill could just never see any wrong when it came to his wife and so he never saw the way Josh was being edged out of the family at large.

 

When Josh was nineteen, he came home one day to find his father passed out in the living room, slumped against the gloss white double doors that separated the main living area into two separate rooms. Josh had immediately called for an ambulance, and Bill’s meagre health insurance luckily covered enough to have him tested for everything to diagnose what had actually happened.

 

Eventually, the results concluded that he was suffering from severe anaemia caused by stage four pancreatic cancer. The diagnosis had floored everyone, and while other families may have seen this as a way to join and unite together to make the treatment process tolerable for the sufferer, it only led to Josh being even more ostracised. He only visited his father when his mother and siblings weren’t there. When his dad asked why he was alone he would make up some story about being busy at some job or other, or skateboarding with friends. The truth was he was never invited or told when the rest of the family were visiting.

 

Eventually, the time came where all the treatments, care and trials had been exhausted and Bill passed away nine months after his diagnosis. While Josh was never explicitly told to move out, his mom never spoke to him directly and when she was confronted on the topic, she made up some reason that Josh reminded her too much of his father and she didn’t want to be around him.

 

Jordan and Abi were too young to know any different. Their mom had always been frosty towards Josh as long as they could remember, so they just treated him the same way, expecting him to do things for them and talking to him like he was a piece of dirt. Ashley was different. She wasn’t all out kind to her brother, but she at least took pity on him and the two of them leant on each other to get through the grief.

 

After another six months of the cold shoulder from the majority of his family, Josh packed up and moved out one evening – having saved up enough tips over the course of the year to afford a one-way flight to L.A. He never told anyone, but left a short note for Ashley so at least she wouldn’t worry.

 

And that would have been it. That was meant to have been the end of Columbus. So long Ohio. Four years of freedom is all he got, and he enjoyed it. He got a good job, had a few flings, got tattoos and really excelled in his life.

 

He runs his left hand over the extensive sleeve on his right arm and smiles as he takes in all the blues, greens and browns covering every inch of flesh. The detailed tree leading up to the cosmos and then the beautiful sunset on the inside of the arm.

 

Sighing loudly, he assesses his overnight beard growth and decides to leave the stubble for the day. Making sure he has his t-shirt and boxers and the rest of the tiny room is tidy, he unlocks the door and heads out to Jamie’s room to get his clothes.

 

“Has he calmed down after last night?” Josh asks his aunt as he cuts through the living room, throwing his night clothes on top of his blankets so he can use them again. The last thing he wanted to do was to get in between mom and son.

 

“He went out about an hour ago,” Sarah tells him. Her cell phone beeps wildly next to her. “Oh and he wants to be picked up at the waffle house to be taken to church,” she sighs as she reads out the text that she had received from her son and Josh rolls his eyes.

 

“Take it that was for me?” he says as he ducks into the teenager’s dark, messy bedroom to pull a change of clothes out.

 

“Oh obviously,” Sarah chuckles angrily. “You are his private driver after all.”

 

Josh scoffs as he pulls his new all black Calvin Klein boxers up and discards his towel into the washing pile before walking back out into the living room.

 

“Yup, exactly what I came back to be,” he tells her sarcastically and continues to pull on a pair of tight skinny black jeans, and buckles the matching black leather belt, before donning a plain white button up. He puts his black skinny tie around his neck and starts to tie it up as he walks back to his aunt. “Are you coming today?” he asks her. Sarah had never been as big into the church as her brother, but she did sometimes come with Josh to his Sunday services.

 

“Aw, honey, no, I don’t think so this week, but thank you for making sure his highness actually goes every weekend. Maybe he’ll learn some empathy before long.”

 

Josh shrugs his shoulders as he finds a plain charcoal grey vest to put on and then finds his well-worn Dr Martens which he sits down to put on. Heading back into the kitchen he finds his last Red Bull in the fridge and pops it open with a hiss. He takes a long drink from the can and leans against the small island and looks at his aunt expectantly.

 

“Joshie,” she starts and Josh’s eyes narrow as he looks at her. He knew that tone, and nothing good ever seemed to come when it was used. “I got this yesterday in the mail.”

 

She holds out a stiff plum coloured envelope with a redirection sticker over the address and fancy gold handwriting adorning it. Josh takes it from her and looks at it suspiciously. It was clearly an invitation to something, but he didn’t recognise the calligraphy on the front as being by anyone he knew. He pulls the inside card out and looks critically at the colourful butterflies, hearts and stars on the front of it.

 

For some reason he had a feeling of dread when he held it, but he swallows past a lump that had appeared in his throat and unfolds it to read what was inside.

 

_“Ashley, Jordan and Abigail Dun request the pleasure of your company for the wedding of their mother Laura Dun to Christopher Joseph…”_

 

“Geez,” is all Josh can say after taking a deep breath. He turns the envelope over in his hands and sees that it is just addressed to Sarah and not to him. He nods slowly and huffs a quiet laugh. “For sure I’m not invited then,” he says with a shrug and hands the letter back.

 

“It’s on Saturday, and you’re gonna be there sonny,” Sarah says with a look that did not invite argument.

 

“Sar, c’mon,” Josh whines anyway, but she silences him with one finger pressed against his lips.

 

“Nope, not another word. Now, go and take my son to find atonement or whatever it is you do every Sunday,” she jokes and places both hands on his shoulders and forces him to walk to the front door.

 

Grabbing his keys and wallet and squeezing them into his pockets he rolls his eyes as he opens the door.

 

“We haven’t finished…”

 

“Yes we have,” she sing songs back at him. “See you later, have fun,” she adds and kisses him on the cheek as she shuts the door behind him.

 

\---

“Jamie, get in the car,” Josh shouts out the window as his Prius cruises to a stop next to his cousin and a small group of his friends.

 

He can see the annoyed look on the kid’s face as he recognises Josh and not his mother picking him up and he sighs loudly and looks at his friends.

 

“Give me a minute guys. I gotta deal with _him_ ,” he says and thumbs over his shoulder at Josh who just rolls his eyes and laughs. Jamie walks over to the car and leans through the window. “What are you doing here?” he hisses, clearly upset that Josh was picking him up.

 

“Him has a name you know,” Josh greets the teen who just glares back at him.

 

“Oh, the guy who walks around naked in my house and insists he’s related to me, even though I never spent longer than a few hours with him before now,” Jamie says snarkily.

 

“Why the frick are you looking at me naked?” Josh exclaims loudly – and possibly slightly on purpose – so that Jamie’s friends heard him.

 

“Oh for fuck sake, shut up!” Jamie says embarrassedly, and quickly waves at the group as he reluctantly gets in the car. Josh looks at his outfit – at least he dressed relatively smartly for a kid, having freshly pressed chinos, smart sneakers and a blue button up on.

 

“Ready for this kid?” Josh asks conversationally as they drive the very short distance to the church Josh had returned to when he came back to the city.

 

“Whatever,” Jamie said sullenly, clearly still upset about whatever problem he had made up this morning.

 

They had pulled into the small car park of the church a lot quicker than Josh had expected and as he puts the car into park he looks over at his cousin and takes a big deep breath in before starting to talk to him.

 

The boy was seventeen and already three inches taller than Josh. He was very slim – too slim if you asked Josh, but no one ever did. He was obsessed with ‘working out’ and eating as little as possible and this was another sore point for his mother. He was fair with dirty blond hair, taking after his father in that regard. His dark brown eyes were a stark contrast to the rest of his colouring. Josh wasn’t surprised to see that he was always a round a number of girls when he was in a group. He had a look and a demeanour about him that seemed to draw people in. He could be charming, just not to his mother or to Josh.

 

As he goes to open his mouth, Jamie stops him almost immediately.

 

“Josh, shut up,” he snaps. “You’re not my dad, you can’t tell me what to do, and I’ll do what I want with mom.”

 

With that, the boy opens the car door and jumps out easily before slamming the door behind him forcefully enough to shake the Toyota and leaves Josh sitting open mouthed.

 

“Yup, that went really well,” Josh says to himself and looks at the time on his dash before realising he should get into the building and start helping out.

 

He pulls the large steepled wooden doors open and closes it gently behind him. The building was a large, old stone built structure that had been used as a Methodist church for decades before it was abandoned when newer churches and buildings had been built in the more upmarket side of town.

 

The drummer had found a small congregation meeting up in it when he himself was seventeen and ended up attending services there instead of going to his family’s parish with them. That was probably the beginning of the end for his mother if thought about it. But he had fallen in love with the cool young pastor who had created a safe place for LGBT youth and their friends and family. Josh never felt like the odd one out in this group and he was welcomed with open arms – something that wasn’t done in school and when he was at home.

 

When he moved home he was thrilled to realise the small group had only grown in popularity in his absence, but the pastor – Frank – still remembered him and he was greeted back on that first Sunday like the prodigal son.

 

“Joshua! You are here! I asked Jamie and he just looked at me blankly and walked over there,” the man at the front of the church called as Josh walked down towards him. Josh looked over to where Frank was gesturing and sees his cousin slumped in one of the wooden pews on his cell phone.

 

“Sorry Frank,” Josh apologises to his friend as he reaches him. The older man was standing in his normal jeans and plain black t-shirt and the two of them hug in greeting.

 

He was about ten years older than Josh. But his arms were completely covered in ink and exciting artwork. His long black hair hung around his face and he pushed it behind his ears as he turns to look at someone standing behind him.

 

“No worries, man,” he shakes off the apology, throws an arm around the shorter man’s shoulders and walks him down to where his lectern was set up ready for the service. “Now, can you do me a solid? This guy is here from a parish across town, but he wants to see exactly what we do here. Can you give him the tour and PR spiel?” he asks with a smile.

 

Josh shyly laughs, and wills his anxiety to drown back into his gut. He wasn’t ready for meeting new people and having to talk to someone new and sound knowledgeable with no prior warning? It was like his worst nightmare had happened in one of the places he was meant to feel comfortable. He feels the warm heat spread across his cheeks.

 

“You’ll be great, dude,” Frank claps him solidly on the back, and stops suddenly in front of one of the most striking people Josh had ever seen in reality.

 

Standing in straight black slacks, a black button up with no tie and the top two buttons undone, the tanned skin, dark haired beauty turned his dark eyes directly to him, and Josh could feel his scrutiny already. He steels himself and takes another deep breath so he doesn’t pass out from fear.

 

He sticks his hand out as confidently as he can.

 

“Hey man, I’m Josh,” he says, and feels proud that his voice actually sounds calmer than he feels.

 

The man clasps his hand in return and shakes solidly. Josh feels a power in his almost delicate and small hands that surprises him.

 

“Tyler. Shall we get going then?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> Thanks so much for the kudos, comments and subscriptions! It's not even been a day yet!! 
> 
> So here's chapter two. Hopefully it manages to entertain, let me know 
> 
> <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, alright, well the boys don't want to leave me alone apparently. 
> 
> Third chapter this week. Hope you enjoy. 
> 
> Thank you all for the love, kudos and lovely comments you have left so far. Please let me know if there is anything you like or hate. I love all constructive comments.

“Dude?”

 

“Huh?” Josh can feel his mouth drying up with the length of time he had clearly had his mouth open for. He realises he still has hold of the other man’s hand, and even more embarrassingly he was running his thumb over the soft tanned skin of his knuckles.

 

Immediately he drops his hand and rubs absentmindedly at the back of his neck, trying to calm himself before looking back up into the man’s face.

 

“Oh, right, cool, let’s go?” Josh suddenly says quietly and shyly and walks uncertainly forward to lead the way. He drops his pace to make sure that Tyler is following him and he walks him from room to room in the ramshackle building, showing where the youth choir practiced, where they let the local graffiti artists practise their craft and also where the congregation often met to chat and get together and catch up after all of the services.

 

The only sound other than the squeaking footsteps from Josh’s shoes was his brief, quiet explanations of each space, and he kept his head down throughout the whole tour, not wanting to look at the man who had literally taken his breath away and make an even bigger fool of himself.

 

He found he had no idea what to do with his hands so he kept swapping them from hiding them in his jeans pockets to brushing his curls back from his forehead and probably making them look even more messy.

 

“And that brings us back to here,” Josh finishes and they return to the main hall, the seats quickly filling with the regulars and one or two newer people coming to see what was going on.

 

Josh stands and restlessly moves from his left to his right foot, holding his hands behind his back and finally takes the chance and looks at Tyler to see what to do next. He almost startles when he sees a small smirk on the other man’s lips and he furrows his eyebrows in surprise and doesn’t even think when he asks the next question.

 

“What? Have I got something on my face?” he asks, and quickly brings his hand to his mouth, looking for anything that could have been there.

 

Tyler chuckles at the question. “Nah, dude, was just wondering if you were gonna actually look at me anytime soon,” he runs on of his hands through his own dark brown hair, and Josh can’t help but marvel at how it seemed to stay so fluffy and perfect with no product in it.

 

“Sorry,” Josh blushes furiously again and looks to the ground again. “Not good with new people,” he tries to explain.

 

“Dude, seriously,” Tyler says and grabs hold of Josh’s arm – much to his surprise – and drags him to one of the front benches at they both sit down next to each other before the seats completely fill up. “I’ve known I’ve been coming here since last week, and I almost chucked up last night because of how much I’ve been worrying about it!”

 

Josh giggles at Tyler’s admission, and begins to feel a lot more at ease in his company.

 

“So why are you here?” Josh asks when they had both calmed down their laughs.

 

“Ah, my pastor is looking to get more people through the doors, but he doesn’t know how to appeal to the community. So he knew that this church did really well getting people in and so I’m here just to get some ideas,” Tyler explains simply, shrugging.

 

“So not gonna become a regular over here then?” Josh asks him, trying to hide his disappointment.

 

Tyler shucks his head, and shakes it quickly. “Nah, don’t think my dad would be too happy about that,” he says, and Josh doesn’t know if he’s imagining it, but he swears he can see some of his own disappointment reflected in the other man’s eyes.

 

It was then that Frank moves to the front of the crowd and starts talking. Josh tries his best to pay attention to the man in front of him, but out of the corner of his eye all he can do is stare at the beautiful boy who had jumped into his life. He can see the rapture and pure attentiveness in Tyler’s face, and he takes a moment to look down and sees the man fiddling away with his fingers, almost in the same habit Josh had when he drummed beats out absentmindedly. Josh smiles to himself and realises that he was definitely going to want to spend more time with this boy.

 

\---

“So you’re a jock?” Josh asks, surprised, but teasing as he smiles widely at Tyler who was demolishing his chips and guacamole in record time.

 

“Not a jock…I just played a bit of ball is all,” Tyler replies shyly, trying not to look directly at the beaming smile being directed at him.

 

“Tyler, you got a basketball scholarship and was captain of the basketball team…I hate to break it to you dude, but you my friend were a jock,” Josh tells him with mock sadness and takes a long gulp of his coke.

 

After the service, Josh had managed to psych himself up enough to ask the man out for lunch. He had no idea if Tyler was interested in men, but he seemed cool and at the very least Josh thought he could make a new friend. It wasn’t as if his social life was overflowing with people who wanted to hang out with him.

 

When Tyler had shyly agreed, Josh’s stomach started to get butterflies worse than ever. He regretted suggesting lunch, because to be honest he didn’t think he was able to keep anything down. So he was thrilled when Tyler agreed to Chipotle so that they could snack instead of eating anything too big.

 

“My family has a huge Sunday dinner so I shouldn’t eat too much,” is what Tyler says in explanation and Josh agreed quickly.

 

That is how they ended up sitting at the metal table opposite each other on their individual wooden stools, sharing tacos and chips and chatting about anything and everything.

 

“I can’t believe we never met before,” Josh says, picking up one of the golden chips and dipping it into the queso before stuffing it into his own mouth.

 

“Well, home schooled,” is all Tyler says in reply as if that would answer everything. Josh makes a slight noise of agreement, but isn’t able to say anything else with his mouth full before Tyler changes the subject. “So how long have you been going to Frank’s services?”

 

“Uhm,” Josh swallows hard before he can fully answer. “Found him when I was seventeen. Only place I really fit, ya know? Especially after coming out to my parents,” and Josh notices immediately that Tyler looks away and down to the floor. Automatically Josh curses to himself. He had obviously said the wrong thing. “Crap, dude, sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable…I’ll just go,” he apologises quickly, before pushing his stool back and starting to gather his stuff together.  

 

Tyler’s head shoots up and stares at him straight in the eyes. He reaches out and grabs Josh’s wrist and Josh can feel his heart start to race at the touch.

 

“Don’t,” Tyler almost pleads with him. “It’s fine, I’m not uncomfortable, honest,” he says and Josh looks at him carefully before slowly going to sit down again. He wasn’t sure what was going on in the other man’s head, but he looked like he was being genuine. Josh didn’t believe he was being lied to anyway.

 

“So you’re…gay?” Tyler asks, obviously trying to make it sound conversational, but Josh can see he’s not too sure about the direction of the conversation.

 

“Exclusively since 1988,” Josh says with a small laugh, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

 

“You always knew?”

 

“In some way, yeah I suppose so. Dad was fine with it. Mom not so much,” Josh shrugs again and helps himself to another chip.

 

Tyler nods slowly. His face thoughtful. Josh studies the beautiful fine features of the other man and dips his head to try and catch his eyes again.

 

“Why, are you…uhm…” Josh can’t think of any way to end the question, so he leaves it open for Tyler to interpret any way he wants. Tyler bites at his top lip and chews it thoughtfully before saying or doing anything.

 

“I’ve experimented,” he shrugs. “But there’s no way my family would ever accept it,” he laughs mirthlessly.

 

“How do you know? If you don’t speak to them?”

 

“Oh, I know, trust me,” Tyler says emphatically. “Long story basically, and not one to get into right now,” he adds and Josh nods along.

 

“Family drama? Yeah, dude I agree, definitely not something to be brought up on a first date…” Josh stops mid movement. Just like that he had put his foot in it again and said the completely wrong thing. “So apparently I also have this disease where I don’t think before I speak…” he says after scratching the back of his neck nervously. Sighing he rolls the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows – his sudden embarrassment for the second time in ten minutes making him suddenly feel very hot and claustrophobic.

 

“Look, Tyler, let me take you home, it’s the least I can do for making this so awful,” Josh offers and finally looks up at the other man again, only to see that his pupils had blown completely wide and he was staring at Josh’s forearm.

 

“Aw, man, that is awesome,” Tyler says, having obviously completely missed what Josh had just said, and reaches for his right arm. Josh lets him have it, and keeps his arm still as Tyler runs his hands over the trunk of the tree and the colours that were there. “Does it go all the way up?” he asks, still enraptured with the art, and Josh swallows and nods, not trusting his voice at all. He could feel the faint flush of arousal in his pants from the way Tyler was gently skimming his skin.

 

Josh licks his lips quickly and closes his eyes tightly to will away any interest the rest of his body was clearly trying to let him know of. Before he knew it, the touch had disappeared and his eyes fly open and he looks to see what was happening, only to see Tyler unbuttoning his own cuffs and rolling his black sleeves up.

 

“You can’t really see a lot of them, but I’ve got this on my forearms, and a few more further up and on my chest,” he adds, almost shyly, but Josh can see the two thin lines around his wrist and then a thicker band just below his elbow in black – but a gorgeous contrast to his darker skin.

 

“Cool,” Josh says to him. “You didn’t strike me as someone who would have tats,” he says, furrowing his brow, but a faint smile also playing on his lips.

 

“Oh, dude! I have a rebellious side as well ya know,” Tyler scoffs, the jovial atmosphere suddenly returning to the table, and Josh laughs.

 

“Really, Mr. Letterman Jacket,” Josh jokes back.

 

“Aw, it’s on man, it is so on!” Tyler retorts, leaning forward over the table and getting closer to Josh’s face.

 

“Really?” Josh moves himself forward so that their faces are now barely an inch away from each other, and they were both staring into each other’s eyes. “And what exactly is your game of choice?” His voice had dropped, and he could see the way his hoarse whisper seemed to affect the man opposite him. And didn’t that give him a small shock of excitement.

 

Suddenly, Tyler pushes himself backwards in his seat and takes another bite of the food in front of him.

 

“Well that’s something I’m gonna have to consider,” he says and smirks back at Josh. “Oh, geez!” he exclaims loudly as his eye catches the time from Josh’s watch. “Is that the time? I’ve really got to go!” Tyler gets up quickly and pats his pockets to make sure he has all of his belongings.

 

“Seriously, Tyler, I can give you a lift home, my car’s just at the church,” Josh offers, getting up himself and making sure he had pocketed his wallet again.

 

“No, it’s fine, my dad is picking me up from the church anyway,” Tyler tells him. “But walk me back?”

 

Josh nods shyly, suddenly not too sure what exactly was going on between them. The whole thing had confused him and he had no idea where he stood.

 

Walking out into the cold, but thankfully sunny Columbus sidewalk, Tyler holds the door open for Josh and he walks out, stuffing his hands in his pockets to keep as warm as he can. Tyler makes sure the door shuts without a bang and speed walks to catch up with him, and nudges him against the shoulder. Josh looks over at him, and can see the wide smile of the other man, and that only causes his own smile to get wider. He feels the tip of his tongue poking through his teeth – a quirk that had never gone away from childhood.  

 

They walk side by side, bumping into each other and giggling every couple of steps, before they reach the car park. The area has only Josh’s car left in it – everyone else having gone home soon after the service. Jamie had disappeared quickly too saying something about going back out with his friends, and so it was just Josh and Tyler standing next to the dirty black hybrid, not too sure what to say to each other.

 

“So, I guess we have to organise that contest then huh?” Tyler finally says, looking at the ground and kicking his shoe into the dirt.

 

“Huh?” Josh asks, ever so eloquently. “Oh, yeah, that,” he says, finally understanding what Tyler meant. “Oh!” suddenly something clicks in his head. “Do you want my number?” he puts his hand out for Tyler’s phone and he hands it over immediately with a sigh of relief.

 

Josh types his number in and hands it back to Tyler, not putting his name in just in case Tyler had a system or method for his contacts.

 

“I’ll text you later then,” Tyler says, typing something Josh can’t see into the screen before clicking it locked and putting it in his pocket. He looks around the parking lot and before Josh knows what is going on, he’s being pushed forcefully backward into the side of his own car, Tyler pinning his arms against it and leaning extremely far into his space.

 

Faces as close as they had been earlier at the table, but the atmosphere even more electrically charged, Josh looks directly into the other man’s face and is enthralled to see exactly how long Tyler’s eyelashes actually were, before being all too aware of Tyler’s breath ghosting over his own lips.

 

No words are said at all, as Tyler leans in and gently presses his lips against Josh’s slightly parted mouth, and Josh can feel Tyler’s own mouth smile beneath his lips as their mouths move as one. Tyler pushes it further to deepen the kiss, his tongue snaking its way into Josh’s and softly sweeps against lips and teeth causing Josh to whine silently when the kiss is ended far too quickly.

 

“Told you I can be a rebel,” Tyler whispers against Josh’s ear, causing a shiver to go through him involuntarily.

 

Tyler pushes away from the car, and saunters back towards the centre of the road as a silver Mercedes drives in. The other man barely looks back at him as he climbs into the car and drives away.

 

Josh looks around him when he is finally alone and brings one hand to his lips, not too sure exactly what had happened.

 

“Crap,” he says loudly, but with a major smile on his face, which was not showing any signs of disappearing any time soon.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there guys, I've updated the tags slightly, so just be warned. 
> 
> Trigger warning for a homophobic slur. 
> 
> Please enjoy
> 
> <3

Monday starts like any other normal day. Josh, Sarah and Jamie all wake up and perform their usual routines, all the time the adults trying not to say or do anything that might upset the teenager. He had really been spoiled as he grew up, and now that his mother could no longer keep him in the lifestyle he was accustomed, he was starting to lash out over the smallest things.

 

The two adults relished the silence and peace before Jamie got up and used the time to catch up on what had happened the previous day.

 

“So, did you hear from lover boy last night?” Sarah smirked at him and winked as she drank her hot water and lemon from her oversized L.A mug Josh had sent her when he first moved out there. It always warmed his heart that she had not only received it, but held on to it all these years. Josh rolls his eyes in response.

 

“No, didn’t hear anything, but he said he always had a big family thing on a Sunday,” Josh explains as he starts to tidy up the room.

 

“Was he that good?”

 

“You are far too invested in this for an auntie,” Josh narrows his eyes and looks at her, pursing his lips together.

 

“Okay, fine! I’ll stop digging into your love life,” she says and leans forward onto the counter, putting her cup down. The lack of movement or sound from her makes Josh stop mid –tidy, his laptop in his right hand, and he turns to look at her suspiciously.

 

“Spill,” is all he says to her.

 

“That thing I gave you yesterday,” and Josh sighs loudly and goes back to moving things around. “Josh, look I have a plus one other than Jamie so at least come with me? Don’t make me go stag,” she pleads him.

 

“Sar, c’mon man, I didn’t even know she was seeing anyone! I’ve not heard from any of them since I left,” he huffs and he can feel himself start to panic.

 

“Joshie, I think you all need this to move on. And it’s not like you won’t be surrounded by hundreds of other people that you can hide from them if you need to. And if it gets too bad, we’ll leave.”

 

Josh licks his lips and chews the inside of his mouth for a time before he finally makes a decision.

 

“I’ll see if I can get the time off,” and he can see Sarah do a mini fist pump. “I’m not promising anything!” he insists and Sarah just nods emphatically before rushing over to her nephew and hugging him tightly.

 

 

She had literally walked out of the door to head to her receptionist job she had only just started when today’s teen fiasco seemed to hit. Josh was standing in the kitchen pouring milk into a bowl for his cereal when the drama began.

 

“I seriously can’t believe you!” Jamie suddenly explodes, the tone grating through Josh’s ears already and the noise made even worse as Jamie stomps into the large living space, slamming his own door shut in the process.

 

Josh opts to ignore the outburst as he pours his Lucky Charms into the milk and starts spooning the cereal into his mouth. Jamie throws himself down onto a stool at the breakfast bar and sighs as loudly as he can to get is cousin’s attention. Josh continues to chew for a few more moments before he looks over at the boy.

 

“You alright there kid?” he asks finally and continues to eat.

 

“You gonna get me my breakfast yet?” Jamie asks him, actually looking down his nose at him.

 

Josh breathes in and holds it before slowly letting it out and looking at his younger cousin. He takes another mouthful and chews it, steadily holding Jamie’s gaze.

 

“Uhm, no,” is all he says after a minute.

 

“What? Why does no one do anything for me?” he huffs and gets up and walks over to the refrigerator, yanking the door open angrily and glaring at the contents as if they had also offended them. He pulls out a carton of orange juice which had Josh’s name clearly written in black Sharpie on the side, unscrews the lid and drinks directly out of it, looking at Josh, almost daring him to say anything.

 

Josh shrugs and lets him do it while he continues to eat. Jamie clearly finishes the juice and replaces the cap after crushing the cardboard and throws it in the trash. He stands next to Josh with his arms folded and a look clearly asking ‘what are you gonna do about it?’

 

Josh nods slowly and swallows the final spoonful of cereal, walking over to the sink to wash his bowl and put it out to dry on the dish rack.

 

“Was that good? Fill a hole?” he asks Jamie who just smirks back at him. “Good. It went out of date last week, but I hadn’t gotten around to throwing it out,” Josh continues casually and goes into the couch to get his work bag that was ready and waiting for him.

 

“Are you trying to fucking kill me?” Jamie shouts at him, his face in total shock that Josh had let him drink the juice.

 

“Language,” is all the older man says to him as he swings the bag onto his back and puts his hand on his hip. “You ready for school?”

 

“What? Why isn’t mom taking me?”

 

“She’s gone to work like she does every Monday, Tuesday and Friday, Jamie. You know this,” Josh tells him slowly like he’s talking to a baby.

 

Jamie makes a frustrated noise, and storms back into his bedroom, returning with his own high end expensive shoulder bag. Josh rolls his eyes at the sight and walks to the front door, picking his keys and wallet up from the table there.

 

Even though Sarah was struggling financially for most things, Jamie’s father was still insisting on sending his son to the most prestigious private school in the state. Obviously that also meant that Jamie had to have the best of everything to go along with the privilege of attending the academy.

 

Instead of having a normal backpack any other teen would be happy with, he had a soft lambs skin leather messenger bag. Instead of any old black pants to wear as part of his uniform, he had to have Ralph Lauren black slacks. His white button up shirts were all monogrammed and had the Tommy Hilfiger logo on all the sleeves. Finally, his tie and blazer he had to wear were only available at the highest of high end stores in town, and his shoes were gorgeous brown and tan leather.

 

Josh had tried to talk Sarah into enrolling Jamie into one of the nearby high schools so he could finish off the year and head off to college, and suggest his dad pay for that instead, but both parents had decided that Jamie couldn’t afford to be uprooted so close to his finals.

 

“C’mon, dude, I’ve got to get to work too,” Josh hurries the kid as he holds the door open and waits for him to pass and go into the corridor.

 

As he passes, Jamie coughs and Josh is almost certain he can hear the word ‘ _fag’_. He does a double take, but Jamie just looks at him expectantly, and the man decides he’s clearly imagining things.

 

\---

“Sorry I’m late,” Josh exclaims as he rushes through the door into the main part of the store, his bag flying behind him and his red snapback almost falling off his head as he moves so fast.

 

“It’s okay, we’ve only just started,” the man’s manager assures him as everyone turns to see him and Josh settles himself in an empty chair at the back of the group.

 

Before they open every Monday there is a staff meeting so that Brad can tell them any vital information that had come through either the previous week or over the weekend. Brad was a large cheerful man, a large pot belly stuck out and hung over the waistband of his jeans, and he always wore a short sleeved pinstriped linen shirt, undone at the collar and tucked into his pants. He wore loafers with white socks no matter the weather and his bushy beard was always all over the place – basically he looked as far removed from anyone who played music as you could get considering how the rest of the staff presented themselves.

 

Anyone who thought he had maybe wondered into the shop, mistaking it for maybe a mattress showroom would not be far off the mark. Brad had been employed to drive sales and to help with staffing issues, head office not believing his lack of knowledge in the music market would be a problem. This is why in order to get a job in store they always wanted some in depth knowledge of one or more of the products they sold.

 

Josh leans back in his chair and he manages to completely blank out what is being said as he looks around the rest of the group. He wasn’t really good friends with any of the people he worked with. He had ended up drawing the most anti-social shifts for his first month and so he hadn’t had the chance to talk to any of them. His mind then drifts to the upcoming wedding, and he really couldn’t decide whether he wanted to be able to get the time off or not. He wanted to see his siblings and know who this man was who was going to be living with them, but he wasn’t too excited about the man trying to replace his father.

 

“So, yeah, good work everyone! Let’s do this!” the manager finishes off finally, and Josh startles at the words, and he realises that in thinking about other things around him he had completely missed the entire meeting. He looks around at the others and doesn’t see any looks of interest or worry, so he gets up and puts his chair away, making a mental note to remember to ask Michael what had happened later.

 

Deciding to bite the bullet and get it over and done with, Josh scratches the back of his neck nervously as he walks up to his manager.

 

“Brad, can I have a quick minute?” he asks, he could feel the wavering in his voice and he hoped it didn’t come out as badly as he felt it had. He had no idea why he was so comfortable in some situations, but the most mundane thing could make him tremble with fear.

 

“Josh, yeah, sure,” Brad says and stops what he’s doing to turn and face the drummer face on, hands on his waist.

 

“Well, something’s come up and I was wondering if I could get Saturday off?” he says and starts to chew his thumb nail.

 

“Saturday? Well it’s a bit short notice,” Brad says, uncertainly and starts walking towards his office in the back of the store.

 

“Yeah, I totally get that, but I’ve just found out that it’s my mum’s wedding, and I suppose I really need to be there,” Josh explains as well as he can to the man, who looks back at him surprised, but without any malice.

 

He pulls out a pile of papers in a binder and flicks through them til he found what he was looking for. He stares at it contemplatively before looking up at Josh finally.

 

“Yup, looks good actually Dun. We were overstaffed anyway, so yeah, take it as holiday,” the older man says to him and Josh smiles shyly at him.

 

“Thanks Brad,” he says to him and starts to walk out of the door.

 

“Oh, and Josh,” Brad says before he can get too far, and Josh grabs hold of the door frame to stop himself as he passes, almost overshooting it and losing his balance. He looks back at his manager with an open face. “You’ve been doing a really good job here, consider this the end of your probation period,” he says and settles himself in his oversized desk chair and looking back down at his desk, indicating the discussion was over.

 

Josh looks at him a bit longer, not too sure whether he had heard him correctly or not. He turns and walks away, a look of confusion clearly on his face, but it soon turns into the biggest, widest smile he had managed in the past month. He had a permanent job, an aunt who liked him, a budding relationship – if he ever texted, but Josh wasn’t worried about that. Things were starting to get better for Josh Dun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and kudos! Each one makes me smile : )
> 
> <33


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys,
> 
> Here's another chapter. Just a quick warning that this does have a lot of homophobic language and disgusting opinions but please be aware that I don't subscribe to these opinions and I hate the idea that anyone would.
> 
> Please stay safe and if this would cause any problems i'm sorry in advance. 
> 
> As always, comments are gold and make me write faster : )
> 
> <3

It was one o’clock in the afternoon and Josh had just come back from his half hour lunch break. He had managed to escape the confines of the store and run to the Burger King around the corner and demolish a whopper meal quickly before walking around the block to stretch his legs and get some sort of exercise before going back to the over bright shop.

 

He walks through the door with his Coke in his hand and he sips from the straw absentmindedly as he pulls his grey hoody over his head, now too hot even though it was cold outside. He puts the take away cup on the counter as he stuffs the sweater in his bag that was hiding under the desk and he goes to the rota to see where he was meant to be for the afternoon. Before he can turn around and disappear out the back to start getting the stock that would have arrived that morning, he hears the alarm that signalled the entrance of a customer and he turns around quickly to see if he can help – with it being lunchtime there were fewer staff on the floor.

 

“Dad, this is crazy! I don’t need anyone to watch me!” comes a familiar voice and Josh rolls his eyes as he sees his cousin walking towards him. He had his tie loosened and his top two buttons undone, his blazer was slung over his arm and his hair looked more dishevelled than it had when he had been dropped off that morning.

 

“Well, as your mother has deemed herself too important to stay at home and wait for you three days a week, no you’ll have to have someone to watch you while I settle this for myself,” the man standing next to him in an exquisite three-piece suit said to the teenager. “So you stay here and I will go and see what exactly this teacher has against you,” he adds, his hands on his well-tailored waist and looking at his son.

 

Jamie’s father – Austin Wright – was someone that Josh never enjoyed seeing whether up close or from afar. He had never liked Josh and had always looked down on him for as long as he could remember. The man was very tall - something that Jamie had definitely inherited – and loved to look after himself. At fifty-eight he still had a full head of hair and flawless skin. He had icy blue eyes and he had a stare that seemed to pierce through anyone he looked at.

 

Standing in the middle of the floor, surrounded by guitar parts, drum skins and keyboards, it was the most out of place Josh had ever seen his ‘uncle’. Sighing he makes his way over to his family to find out what was happening.

 

“Hey dude, what you doing here? Austin,” he greets the older man politely, who just glares back at him – a look that his son had clearly picked up from him.

 

“Joshua, Jamie has been suspended with immediate effect, and I need to go and sort this out at the school without him there,” Austin jumps into an explanation with the full authority he believed his position as a relatively successful stockbroker gave him.

 

“Dude! What did you do?” Josh says, looking over at his cousin, clearly concerned about his behaviour. Whatever he did at home and however he treated his mother, Josh was always fairly certain he had behaved himself in school around his peers.

 

“Jamie was fooling around with his friends and another kid in his class, and the teacher seemed to have taken against him for some reason and sent him to the principle with some made up story about bullying,” Austin answers for him again, Jamie looking around the shop and rolling his eyes.

 

“What did they say you did?”

 

“The emotional little fag said Jamie had called the other kid names, and made fun of him for looking like a girl. It’s ridiculous, getting into this much trouble for telling the truth! People are so sensitive these days,” Austin scoffs and then looks at Josh. “But then look at who I’m talking to,” he sneers and Josh narrows his eyes and just stares back at him.

 

The older man sneers at the drummer and then turns on his heel and heads to the glass door.

 

“I’ll get this sorted Jamie, don’t worry,” he said and walked out without even a backwards glance, leaving his son standing gormlessly in the same place, his hands in his pockets and looking thoroughly bored.

 

Josh looks around the store to see he was still the only one there. He walks over to his cousin and grabs him by the arm and drags him to the till, almost throwing him in the seat that was sitting behind it. He stands stock still and glares at the boy, his hands on his hips and waits for an explanation.

 

“Well?” he asks him sternly, Josh internally fuming, but knowing that there was nothing that he would be able to do in way of punishment that Jamie would ever pay attention to.

 

“Well, what?” the kid sasses back and folds his arms in front of him, glaring back, meeting Josh’s brown eyes.

 

“Did you bully that kid?” Josh asks, knowing fine well Jamie knew what he was talking about. Jamie tuts in response and rolls his eyes again.

 

“Leave me alone _Joshua._ God! Dad’s dealing with it, nothing happened that that little fairy didn’t deserve anyway!”

 

“For crying out loud Jamie, was he gay?” Josh cries, now visually disappointed that yet another one of his family was now turning into a homophobe. Jamie shrugs in reply and looks down at the floor. “Aw, man! Right, well you must have homework you can do, you can sit there and do it while I work. No talking, give me your phone,” and he sticks his hand out for the cell and Jamie reluctantly hands over his iPhone, muttering something unintelligible.

 

Josh sticks it in his back pocket, and rests both of his palms on the desk before turning round to speak to his cousin again. He takes a few deep breaths in before he starts.

 

“You have no freaking clue how difficult this life is! You have had everything handed to you on a plate, and now you can’t get everything you want any more you act like a two-year-old having a tantrum. You can’t treat people like garbage, dude. What you said to that kid might make him hurt himself, it could do anything! Now just sit here and think about what you can do to make this better,” he finishes and starts to walk away.

 

“Just because your family hates you for being a fucking fag, doesn’t mean everyone who gets called the same thing feels the same way, Josh. Get over yourself,” Jamie hisses at him, before dragging his textbooks out of his bag and pointedly ignoring him again.

 

That was the moment Michael walks in from the back store room and hears Jamie’s little outburst. Josh looks back at the boy who was family, feels his face burn bright red and scowls. He pushes past his co-worker and into the back room, slamming the door behind him.

 

\---

The store room was silent and dark, and just what Josh needed to try and relax in before he went out there and attempted to murder his cousin. From here he can’t hear the tinny music that the store had been playing on repeat constantly for the past two weeks, and there was a cool breeze coming from the vents that kept the room at a stable cooling temperature to make sure the stock wasn’t ruined.

 

He leans against the un-treated grey walls, between two towering metal shelving units and puts his head in his hands before falling to the ground with his knees pulled up to his chest. He starts to pull at the gauges in his ears, removing them and replacing them a number of times as a way to try and calm his nerves.

 

He has no idea how long he sits against the cool brick for before a knock and a creak comes from the opposite corner, and a bright light shines through quickly before it disappears and Josh hears the door click shut.

 

“Josh? You still in here?” comes a familiar deep voice. Josh looks up above his knees and sees the wide muscular frame of Michael look around the room for him. Josh had been on speaking terms with the guy, but they hadn’t really bonded at all in the time he was there. He sighs loudly, and starts to push himself up off the floor. He had already been embarrassed enough for one day, he didn’t need to be found almost in tears in the corner of the store room.

 

“Yeah, hi, Michael, I’m here,” he says finally, and makes himself walk out towards the man.

 

“You alright, man? I mean I heard what that kid said, it was uncalled for,” he says kindly, his hands in his pocket and trying to make himself seem a lot smaller.

 

“Yeah, I’m cool,” Josh says with an entirely unconvincing smile, and he can tell immediately that it hadn’t fooled the man in front of him.

 

“Right, yeah, sure,” Michael replies after a moment’s scrutiny. “Well, let me know if I can kick his ass for you yeah?”

 

Not expecting the offer at all caught Josh off guard completely and he actually laughs loudly at the offer. His smile always being infectious made the other man laugh too and before long they were both uncontrollable.

 

“Thanks, dude,” Josh says finally, calming down enough to get some words out.

 

“Anytime,” Michael says with a shrug and throws his arm around the shorter man’s shoulders. “You alright to come back out?” and Josh replies with a smile, a crinkle of his nose and a small nod.

 

He’s led right back out to the front of the store and he sees his cousin still sitting where he had left him and working through something form a thick tome. Michael clears his throat loudly and Jamie looks up expecting to see Josh standing in front of him, but sees the mountain of a man instead.

 

“Josh has stuff to do out the back and with the kit, so he’s asked me to keep an eye on you,” is all he says, and Josh can’t help but smirk when he sees Jamie take an audible gulp of air at the declaration.

 

He nods quickly and gets back to his work as Michael walks behind him to get settled at the till. Josh looks at his co-worker – friend? – and is greeted by a subtle wink and a cheeky smile. Josh finally feels happy to get back to his duties, safe in the knowledge that there was no way his cousin was going to do any more damage.

 

After two more hours of silence from the youngest person in the store, and Josh battling to get boxes of stock onto the shelves, the alarm goes again and Josh totally ignores it in favour of pulling tape off of the box he had just brought out the front and hanging up different types of strings.

 

“Ah! Jamie, cool, dude here you are,” a voice exclaims. Josh stops what he’s doing and can feel his eyebrows knit together. He knows that voice.

 

“Hi Mr Joseph,” a sullen voice that could only be his cousin’s replies monotone and Josh peeks over the top of the display to see exactly what he expects.

 

Standing at the till is the beautiful man he had met the previous day. Wearing tan pants, grey and blue suede Asics sneakers and a black almost oversized zip up hoody and his hands hooked casually into his pockets, he was standing in front of Josh’s cousin, and Josh can feel his mouth hanging open and all coherent thought disappearing from his mind.

 

“So your dad came in to speak to us again and was rather…insistent that Mr Donley should rethink your punishment,” Tyler continues to talk to Jamie and suddenly what he’s saying sinks into Josh’s admittedly horny mind. Father? Punishment?

 

Josh drops the pack of strings he was holding and trips over the metal rotating stand he was standing behind. The noise ricochets through the largely empty store. A few customers behind him tut loudly and immediately Tyler looks over to see what had happened.  

 

Tyler’s dark brown soulful eyes lock with Josh’s wide lighter ones and after a quick flicker of surprise, the other man’s face breaks into a wide grin, his slightly crooked teeth showing and dimples in his tanned skin becoming more pronounced.

 

“Josh?” he asks, clearly surprised to see the man there. “You work here?”

 

“Err, uhm,” Josh stumbles over the boxes at his feet as he tries to get past them all to go and see exactly what was meant to be happening. He eventually ends up back at the counter, next to Tyler and smiles back widely at him, the previous day’s kiss now replaying through his head on a constant repeat. “Yeah! Yeah I do, Jamie’s my cousin, what’s going on? Are you his teacher?”

 

“Yeah!” Tyler says with another one of those heart stopping smiles. “I just came by to tell him that he’s no longer suspended, but his dad has let me set his punishment at whatever I deem fit, so I thought that he should know that he’s going to be working on the new musical every afternoon for the next three months!” Tyler says happily, clearly relishing the thought of torturing the younger kid after what he had done at school. Josh tries to hide a smirk as he watches Jamie’s colouring completely disappear from his face. “Also, your dad wanted to let you know that he’ll pick you up when he finishes work and you’re staying with him tonight,” Tyler adds and turns back to Josh, indicating to his student that the conversation with him was over.

 

Josh looks at him curiously, a ghost of a smile on his lips. He shuffles slightly, not too sure exactly what to do next.

 

“So…I was gonna text,” Tyler says after a moment, and the apparent bravado he had had when talking to Jamie had seemingly vanished, and he now looked a lot more vulnerable and shy.

 

“Nah, dude it’s cool,” Josh tries to brush it off as if he wasn’t expecting anything.

 

“No. Josh, once I finished here I was gonna text,” Tyler emphasises, and makes sure he looks Josh straight in the eye as he says it. “But, seeing as you’re here, I was wondering if you were free tonight?”

 

Josh can feel the look of shock coming over his face. He hadn’t been asked out in so long that he wasn’t too sure he wasn’t imagining this entire situation. Yes, he had slept with a load of guys back in L.A but for whatever reason people seemed to see him only as a good lay and nothing else. He pulls his phone out of his pocket to make sure he had no appointments in his calendar for that evening, and a text from his aunt was sitting on his screen waiting for him.

 

_Sarah – I’m staying over at a friend’s tonight, Austin is taking Jamie, have fun!_

Josh laughs once at the sudden fortunate turn of events and looks back up at Tyler to see him looking at him still, as if he was the most fascinating thing he had ever seen.

 

“Looks like my evening’s suddenly free,” he says, almost flirtily to the other man. “Come round mine for seven? We can order in?” he asks with a twinkle in his eye and he watches as Tyler’s pupils blow wider at the slight suggestive tone in his voice.

 

“Copy that,” Tyler says and Josh smiles again at him and winks. Tyler walks quickly back to the door and looks back once at the drummer as he walks through it.

 

As Tyler disappears from sight, Josh falls against the nearest stable object and smiles giddily to himself again. All he hears is a disgusted groan and some sarcastic comment from his cousin. But he couldn’t seem to muster any reason to care. He had an hour, and he finally had something to go home for.


	6. Chapter 6

“Crap! Crapcrapcrapcrap!”

 

Josh rushes around the living room as quick as he can, picking up his things from the floor and storing them in a nearby cupboard. He’s dressed in only his black jeans with the rips in the knees but he hadn’t yet managed to decide on what t-shirt he should wear.

 

He had managed to get home in record time despite Austin showing up half an hour late for Jamie, and had been left with only an hour to shower, change and tidy up ready for Tyler coming round. He had received a message from the other man to find out what his address was after his visit to the store, and Josh was ashamed to admit exactly how much time he had agonised over how to end the message he sent back.

 

He had no idea if he should send a kiss at the end, just the address, whether he should say anything else…finally he had opted to leave it with the address and a cool ‘see you soon’, before sending it and then turning the phone off so he didn’t obsessively look at it for the time he had left to work.

 

He rushes around the small living space, bunching all of his washing and sheets up into balls and heading into Sarah’s bedroom to hide the evidence. He groans loudly as he scratches at his chest, and obsessively runs his other hand through his hair, while standing in the middle of his aunt’s room to finally make a decision on his clothes.

 

“Okay, I can do this,” he says to himself, and walks steadfastly towards his clothes, and pulls out his soft long sleeved grey pullover, pulling it over his head and finally rolling the sleeves up to his elbows. Casual, but nice, he thinks to himself as he looks in the mirror. Deciding to forego his contacts for his glasses, he pulls the brown tortoiseshell frames onto his face.

 

Suddenly, there was a loud rap at the door, and Josh stares at himself in the mirror a moment longer, biting his lip as he looks at himself to make sure he looked good enough for the too handsome man who was standing waiting for him. Swallowing past a huge lump that had formed in his throat, he steels himself and walks out to the hallway and front door to pull it open.

 

As he knew it would be, Tyler was standing in front of him, looking as good as Josh remembered him. Looking slightly nervous himself, Tyler was holding a large pizza box and was looking around him as if he was worried he had the wrong address as the door opened for him.

 

“Order a pizza?” he asks, biting the corner of his lip and making Josh internally swoon, before realising he should let the man inside and he holds the door open so he can pass.

 

“Let me take that,” Josh grabs the huge sixteen-inch box and heads into the kitchen, expecting the other man to follow him. He throws it down on the island and starts looking around for paper towel that he knew he had in one of the cupboards.

 

“You got ranch?” comes a voice from behind him and Josh immediately chuckles as he pulls the half empty bottle out of the cupboard he was looking in and throws it at Tyler, who expertly catches it.

 

“All the gourmet cuisine dining options in this house,” Josh jokes and he finally turns round to talk properly to Tyler. He had realised as he was searching that he hadn’t actually welcomed the man, and had greeted them like he was an old friend. He tried to stop that thought from weirding him out too much.

 

He stops suddenly in his tracks as he gets a proper look at his date. Tyler had come in in a black jacket, but while Josh was finding things he had removed it and what was left was breath taking. He wore tight skinny jeans, stopping about an inch from his shoes, simple black sneakers, no label and Josh could see a flash of colour from his socks. His shirt was a gorgeous short sleeved button up covered in pink floral patterns on a black background. It showed off his tattoos perfectly, and Josh couldn’t help but enjoy the contrast of the simple black against the olive skin.

 

“Wow,” is all he says as he takes in the view in front of him, and he watches as Tyler shifts slightly uncomfortably as Josh looks at him.

 

“Could say the same about you,” Tyler says and plays with his hands for a moment before pointing to the pizza on the counter. “We gonna eat?”

 

“Aw, yeah man! Sofa, let’s go!” Josh says, shaken back into the present and he grabs everything before heading over to his make shift bed.

 

Crawling into the corner of the seat, he crosses his legs under him and settles down with the remote and turns on the screen before handing it over to Tyler. “Watch whatever dude,” he says and opens the box before finding the best covered slice and grabbing it for himself.

 

“Oh, I see how it is, I bring the food and you eat the best bits,” Tyler jokes with him, a glint in his eye as Josh looks back at him completely shocked.

 

“I would never!” he says, but the shock he was going for is lessened slightly by the mouthful of pizza he has to talk around and comes out more like _‘my should over’_ and a few crumbs escape at the same time.

 

“Wow, that was attractive,” Tyler sasses back with a smirk and grabs his own slice before quickly devouring it himself.

 

Both of the boys relax as the easy joking between them turns to talk of what they want to do with their lives and likes and dislikes. Josh learns that Tyler likes nearly all of the same music as he does, and even plays a few instruments. He also realises he doesn’t talk about his family much and this pleases Josh no end, his family being something he never liked talking about.

 

Eventually talk turns to a very serious topic.

 

“Nah, dude, I will hand you your _ass_ at this,” Tyler says, emphasising the words with his fist hitting his other palm to make a point.

 

Josh walks back through from the kitchen with two cans of his own Red Bull and throws him a can as he settles down on the floor in front of the sofa to set up the games console.

 

“Really? You wanna put your money where your mouth is, big talker?” and the can hisses as he opens the ring pull and drinks from the opening.

 

“No dude, it’ll be unfair, like taking candy from a baby,” Tyler tells him and they both wait as Super Mario Kart loads up on the screen. Josh hands the other controller over his shoulder with a wink. “Don’t be so smug, Josh,” Tyler tells him with a knowing look.

 

The first few circuits go without a hitch – each man excitedly gloating when they win or blow the other up, but it was the fifth round where everything changed.

 

Josh was still sitting on the floor, Tyler behind him with his legs up – his sneakers long forgotten on the floor beside them. He was trying to aim a well-timed bomb at his opponent when he feels something tickling the nape of his neck, massaging a point that he always felt was more sensitive than anywhere else.

 

Aiming, he misses and looks up accusingly at Tyler who just innocently stares at the screen, and smirking when Josh drives off the track completely.

 

“You did that on purpose!” he shouts at him, his anger not that genuine.

 

“I have no clue what you mean,” Tyler replies.

 

This starts a game of playing dirty, Josh subtly moving to get something from the kitchen and giving Tyler a wet willy as he returns, and then Tyler tickling Josh as he tries to sit back down on the floor.

 

“No! Oh my gosh, dude don’t!” Josh cries loudly as Tyler’s hands move to his side and starts to touch at his sensitive ribs. He tries to halt the access by clamping his arms down, but the thinner boy was stronger than he looked as he grabs the drummer and pins him to the floor forcefully, straddling his hips as he tries to hold both wrists in the same hand before holding them above Josh’s head.

 

“Aha! Now you’re at my mercy!” he says, triumphantly and smiles widely before starting to run his fingers tantalisingly up and down Josh’s side.

 

Josh squeals as he wriggles underneath him, thrashing his legs and trying not to laugh at the same time. Tyler ends up getting closer and closer to his face as he struggles to keep hold of the man under him but he is also laughing hysterically, enjoying it all too much.

 

Josh can’t help but feel himself plump up in his own boxers at the movement and constant friction as he tries to free himself. He had been trying desperately to hold down his emotions as soon as he had seen Tyler, but this now was becoming too much for him, and he wasn’t able to try and fight the tickling and keep a lid on his own horniness.

 

Suddenly, he feels himself jolt his hips upwards at the exact time Tyler wriggles in the right way and Josh moans loudly that he would like to admit as his half hard erection rubs against the pressure.

 

Both of the men freeze immediately at the noise and the feeling. After a moment, Josh looks up shyly into Tyler’s eyes and gasps slightly as he can only see black where his pupils have blown completely wide and he is staring directly back at him.

 

The next thing that Josh realises it Tyler’s lips pressing down on his, and he can barely get his thoughts together as the man above him starts to grind back down onto Josh’s erection again whilst attacking his lips forcefully.

 

Josh gasps at the feeling again, his mouth giving Tyler the opening he was clearly looking for, and he slips his tongue into Josh’s mouth, swiping and learning each peak and trough it can find. Josh grabs hold of the muscle with his own lips and sucks it deeply, causing Tyler to whimper and moan himself – a sound Josh thought he would be thing about for days and weeks to come.

 

He cants his hips up again, and Tyler shifts so that he is now lying in between Josh’s splayed legs. Josh can feel the bulge in Tyler’s own pants and the thought that the other man is just as turned on as he is, is enough to start nipping and biting at the man’s lower lip before moving down the sharp curve of his cheek and on to his neck. He can’t stop himself from biting the soft skin he finds and sucking hard before licking over the bruise he knew was going to start forming.

 

“Josh, Josh, gosh, stop,” Tyler suddenly announces, pulling off breathlessly. He doesn’t move away, and Josh tries to lean up to get back to what he felt would be the eventual outcome.

 

Tyler chuckles at him, but puts his finger on Josh’s mouth, stopping him. He falls backwards so he is leaning agains the base of the sofa and looks at him, shaking his head.

 

“Everything okay?” Josh asks, his voice quite quiet, and he looks at the other man, worried he had done something that had upset him.

 

“Oh, my gosh, yeah man, everything’s fine,” Tyler giggles, still breathless and Josh can feel the confusion gradually taking over his face. “Josh, you have no idea how much I want this, but…” he drags a hand down his face, and sighs loudly clearly trying to hold his resolve. “I don’t want things to move too quickly,” he says finally and Josh releases a breath he didn’t realise he was holding.

 

“Oh,” Josh says, surprised. “No, that’s totally fine, honestly, totally cool,” Josh says with a smile at Tyler and he gets a bright shining one in return.

 

There’s a moment of silence as the two of them stare at each other for a while, and Josh can feel himself licking at his lips, trying to savour the taste of the man as much as he can.

 

“So…I’m gonna go,” Tyler says finally with a smile and Josh notices him putting his fingers to his lips with a small smile as he stood up and then put his shoes back on.

 

“Okay, cool,” Josh says and he puts his own hands in his back jeans pockets, not wanting to do anything that would scare Tyler too much.

 

Tyler finds his jacket and slides it on before walking slowly to the front door. Standing with it open, Josh leans agains the doorway, looking expectantly at him.

 

“Wow, so I’ll text?” Josh says finally letting Tyler decide if he wants to hear from him again.

 

“Yeah, do that,” Tyler says, smiling back at him again. “Oh, dude, I should put you in my phone properly,” he says and he pulls out his cell phone, and starts to swipe through it looking for something. “So it’s Josh Wright, yeah?” he says, typing it in.

 

“Uh, no dude, that’s Jamie’s dads name. His mom is my aunt. So it’s Dun. Josh Dun,” he says lightly.

 

Tyler stops what he’s doing and drops his hand with his mobile in down by his side.

 

“Josh…Dun?” he asks, a dark look covering his face, that Josh can’t quite place.

 

“Uhm, yeah? Everything okay?”

 

“Er, yeah, cool. I’ll be in touch,” Tyler says shortly and walks – almost runs – away from the door, Josh watching open mouthed from behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, 
> 
> Thanks for reading again. As always, I love all comments and criticism. Let me know if you have anything to say or ask! Come and find me on Tumblr (Basnatural) if you want!
> 
> <33


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> I really can't believe how many people have kudo's, commented and bookmarked. I'm seriously in shock right now!
> 
> I hope I can keep you guys interested, but let me know what you think as always. I love any theories or thoughts you might have and any constructive criticism is always loved. 
> 
> Please enjoy!
> 
> <3

The week passes in a bit of a blur for Josh. He tries texting Tyler a couple of times after his ‘great escape’, but had never received any word in reply. He was feeling awful about himself He had clearly pushed the man too far and he decided to leave him be for a few days. If he hadn’t heard from him after the wedding, then he would try him again.

 

He didn’t want to be clingy. He didn’t want to seem over eager or like he was coming on too strong, but he really liked the guy. And more than just wanting to kiss him, he liked his personality, and they just clicked as soon as they got together. So in trying to completely ignore both the upcoming nuptials and the fear of scaring away Tyler, he threw himself into everything else he could think of.

 

This is why, on his scheduled day off, he found himself in a hair salon at nine in the morning getting gowned up and settling down for the long haul. Normally he would be doing this himself, but when Sarah offered her friend’s services with regards to his hair he bit her hand off.

 

Finally, his six months was up, and he would be able to get rid of his normal hair colour for something a bit more ‘him’.

 

“Joshua?” a polite voice comes from in front of him, a young blond girl holding up a purple iridescent gown and a towel, and gesturing for him to move over to a comfortable looking seat in front of a mirror.

 

“Hi, yes, me,” Josh says clumsily, standing and tucking his phone away in his back pocket before settling down. Staring at it wasn’t going to get Tyler to text back sooner.

 

The blond ties the gown around his shoulders, adjusts a towel and disappears quickly. Clary walks behind him and squeezes his shoulders while looking and smiling at him in the mirror. Her fire engine red hair a startling contrast to the other stylists around her who conformed to normal blonde and brunette norms.

 

“Hi honey, how are you doing?” she asks him conversationally and Josh shrugs in response.

 

Clary and Sarah had been friends since high school. She had been there for his aunt through everything and was the only other person other than Josh who knew everything that Austin had put her through. Josh had gotten to know her when he came home, and appreciated the help that the woman had given Sarah while he wasn’t able to.

 

The salon was actually Clary’s. She had bought it after her own divorce and had set it up to be one of the nicest studios in this part of town. The walls were covered in washed out drift wood planks, and the colour of the walls was a sea foam green, lending more to the seaside feel of the place. Josh had not been in before, but was seriously considering making this a regular haunt for him if he could afford it.

 

“So what are we doing for you today?” Clary’s voice reminds Josh exactly what he was there to do and he smiles his wide toothy grin at her and cocks his eyebrow at her as he digs his normal brand of hair dye out of his bag he had brought with him.

 

The vibrant violet had always been his favourite colour and it was the colour he wanted back as soon as he could. Clary takes the box from his hand and looks at him sceptically.

 

“You know I’m going to have to bleach you first right?” she says to him.

 

“Not my first rodeo,” Josh tells her and digs out the other box that he knew would lift his natural colour with only one pass.

 

“Wow, it’s not is it?” she says to him, clearly impressed. “All over or…?” clearly assuming the man in the chair had a plan.

 

“Nah, shave the sides and just the top,” he says with a twinkle in his eye.

 

“Awesome, give me time to mix it,” Clary tells him with a wink and he watches her back away.

 

\---

Four hours later, a lot of dye and shampoo later and Josh walks out of the salon feeling a million times better. He had tucked his beanie in his jeans pocket, not wanting to cover his newly coloured hair, and he smiles to himself feeling like a completely different person.

 

“You look happier,” Sarah says to him, her leaning against a lamp post as he walks past. He stops suddenly, surprised to see her, but smiles back quickly and winks.

 

“I feel happier! What kind of gay man would I be if I wasn’t excited after I had my hair done?” he jokes back at her and puts his arm around her shoulders, only reaching slightly. “What’s up Sar?” he asks, kissing her cheek.

 

“Can’t I surprise my favourite nephew and take him for lunch?” she says, looking shocked that he would suspect she had an ulterior motive.

 

“Well, I mean you can, I’m not gonna turn down food, but why today?”

 

It was Friday. In twenty-four hours he was going to be face to face with his family again and meeting his new step father. He was anxious as anything, but Josh was anything but professional. He was trying to keep a brave face on it.

 

Sarah sighs and looks at him, stopping in the side walk. “Well, I thought you might want to get a new outfit for tomorrow,” she tells him and smiles comfortingly at him.

 

“Sarah, no! You can’t afford it and I’ve got stuff at home I can wear,” Josh shakes his head and starts to walk again, dragging her along with him.

 

“Josh, everyone else will be wearing something nice and new,” Sarah pleads as she stops him and pulls him backwards. He scowls at her in response.

 

“Yeah, but they’ll all get it paid for by my mom,” he tells her with scorn.

 

“Josh,” and the tone that Sarah used was almost exactly the same one as her brother would use when Josh had disappointed him. Josh was suddenly jolted back to being a teenager again and that made him feel all sorts of uncomfortable.

 

He licks his lips and then chews the inside of his cheek before scratching the back of his neck, the new sensation of short hair surprising him for a moment. “Yeah, alright. But don’t expect me to be happy about it,” he says with a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

 

\---

By the time Josh and Sarah had exhausted the fashion shops of Columbus – and had fed Josh, after all he was a growing boy as he had to keep telling his aunt – it was time to go and pick Jamie up from school.

 

Sarah had driven her car – a beaten up, bronze Toyota Corolla that had clearly seen better days, but was the only thing she was able to afford on her own. They drove the ten miles out of the town centre to get to the academy grounds, placed in the middle of beautifully manicured gardens outside of even the suburban areas.

 

Josh looked around at the ridiculousness that surrounded him. When he was at school the last thing he cared about was what the fields and gardens looked like around him – not that his public high school had any of those anyway. He attended one of the nicer schools in Columbus, but it was nowhere near prestigious as the place he was currently driving into.

 

The car pulls into the parking space and Josh takes in the large sandstone built building in front of him. It was clearly an old building, large stained glass windows shining brightly in the late autumn sunshine. There was a faux moat dug around the large building with what appeared to be a wooden bridge in the style of a draw bridge entering a large wooden castle like door. Josh smirks to himself thinking the place looked more like something out of his friend’s supernatural web series rather than a private school.

 

He leans his head back against the headrest, and suddenly remembers that Tyler works at this school, and he feels the familiar butterflies stirring in his stomach as he perks up and starts looking around to see if he can catch sight of him.

 

His door opens and he would have fallen out if he hadn’t had the safety belt fastened. He scowls up at his cousin who just looks down at him.

 

“Oh for fucks sake, could you look any gayer?” he says angrily as he sneers at the drummer. Josh rolls his eyes back at him.

 

“What you want Jamie?”

 

“Get out of my seat, jerk,” he taunts. Josh narrows his eyes at him and crosses his arms in front of him, steadfastly refusing to move.

 

“Jamie, baby, please just get in the back?” Sarah pleads with him. Josh looks over at his aunt ready to rebuke her for the kind time that she was using on him, when he notices the hunched over figure rushing out of the main entrance and towards a silver Ford parked at the end of the parking lot.

 

“Give me a minute,” Josh says to his aunt and unfastens the belt as he jumps out the car, the chill of the air hitting him. He pulls the arms of his hoody over his hands and huddles further into it as he walks quickly over to the familiar man.

 

“Tyler! Hey!” he shouts cheerfully, and the thin man looks around, trying to see where his name had come from. He had a smile on his face until he looks closer at Josh with his new purple hair and a scowl suddenly clouds his face and he continues to fiddle with his keys and books in his arms. Not being able to hold everything the pile of books fall loudly to the floor, the small rubble of stones that made up the car park’s surface scattering at the impact.

 

Josh gets to the mess that he had inadvertently created and crouches down next to Tyler, picking up the fallen books to try and help him.

 

“Gosh, sorry, I’m so sorry,” he babbles as he hands the books over one by one, all with titles such as ‘the truth will set you free’, and ‘Christianity and moral identity’. He hands ‘Neuroscience and Religion’ to the teacher and raises his eyebrows at the collection of texts. “Wow, heavy reading, dude,” he says jokingly.

 

“Yeah. What do you want Josh?” Tyler replies shortly, and Josh realises the complete avoidance of eye contact, and the way the other man held all of his tension in his jaw.

 

Shaking his head and furrowing his brow, he finally asks; “Everything okay? I mean, I haven’t heard back from you, thought you might want to do something this weekend? I mean, I’m busy tomorrow, but I’m free after church on Sunday…”

 

“Josh, no. I don’t think that would be a good idea. Maybe best if we don’t talk anymore huh?” Tyler says, and Josh watches as he chews and bites at his lips.

 

“What? Tyler, I thought we were getting along cool, dude, what’s happened?” Josh ducks his head to try and catch his eye.

 

“I don’t want to be around a dirty whore, who lies to everyone he knows and ignores the things that matter,” Tyler hisses angrily and Josh’s jaw just drops as he stares back at him.

 

“Wh…? Tyler, what?” he shouts, but the teacher ignores him as he finally gets his car door opens and jumps in, throwing his books into the passenger seat.

 

“Forget my number Josh,” he shouts out the window and he pulls out of the space before quickly driving away.

 

Josh tries desperately to blink away the tears as the words his mother had screamed at him more than once start to fill his head, but now in the voice of the man he really thought he could have a future with.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!!
> 
> Sorry I disappeared for a while, got a little bit caught up in a certain tour for another group....all done now so let's get back to this shall we??
> 
> Please enjoy!!

Josh sits quietly on the concrete retaining wall at the side of the building and sighs loudly as he looks up and down the streets at the cars coming and going.

 

He had gotten dressed as quickly as he could that morning and left before Sarah and Jamie had even woken up. The Saturday morning was cloudy, but there were clear breaks in the cloud cover, and it Josh supposed it was just his mother’s luck to get good weather as fall turned in to winter. He scratches the back of his neck and downs half of his venti Starbucks to try and get some confidence for what was to come.

 

Since he had been snubbed completely by Tyler, his self-esteem had been at an all-time low – not that it was ever high to start with. He had no idea why the other man had said the things he had and he had exhausted himself trying to think of anything that could have happened in between meetings that could have led him to that conclusion.

 

He stared down at his feet as they hang above the side walk, his heels kicking at the wall as he swung them. He could really care less that he was scuffing his new shoes, but he stops when he looks at them and shines them on the back of his pants to try and stop them looking older than they were. He had carefully dressed in his new black suit pants and black button up before tying his black and white chequered tie perfectly. He had a charcoal grey jacket to wear and his black slip on loafers completed the look. He knew he looked nothing like himself, but he jumps down off of the wall as he notices the time and walks towards the front of the red stone built building to find the family who actually appreciated him. He spins to get his jacket on and then twirls quickly to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.

 

The venue that had been chosen for the ceremony and reception was as grand as Josh had imagined it would be. Never say his mother shied away from showing off when she could. It was one of the older buildings in the city, and was popular and expensive for wedding parties. Built at the turn of the century, it was the most extravagant masonic lodge in the state until it was taken over and used for conferences, parties and weddings instead when the Masons became less in favour with the people of Columbus as a whole. Josh had had his prom in this very venue – another night he would rather forget as the memory flicks back into his mind and he winces in response.

 

Yellow cabs started to pull up alongside him as the ceremony time came closer. Well dressed women and men all carefully and fluidly emerged from the back of the cars as if it was a red carpet event of the decade instead of a local wedding, and Josh tried to see if he recognised any of the people passing him. He stared at his watch as the minutes started to tick towards noon, and he feels the nerves start to attack his insides as he realised his aunt hadn’t yet arrived.

 

“Thinking I’d stood you up?” a familiar voice comes from behind him and Josh spins again and exhales loudly with relief as he sees his aunt and cousin standing there. Sarah was wearing an old maxi sun dress of gold, brown and orange hues, that she had used a number of times in the past for weddings and family get togethers, but she looked beautiful as he hair fell in gentle waves around her shoulders and she had a cream cashmere shawl around her shoulders.

 

Jamie’s ever ready sulk was present on his face as he stared at his phone screen, ignoring everyone around him, huffing loudly obviously in disgust. As he takes a break from the screen he scans the crowd and as he notices a crowd of skinny blonds covered in fake tan and wearing extremely short dresses, he walks off without even a backwards glance.

 

“Wow, my son really loves his family,” Sarah says sarcastically as she watches Jamie swagger over to the group of girls and then throw his arm around them, causing them to giggle and laugh at whatever it was he said to let him join them.

 

“Yeah, he’s a real charmer that one,” Josh deadpans, rolling his eyes as Sarah pulls him in for a hug.

 

“You doing alright, kiddo?” she asks him, a worried look on her face, and clearly concerned about what will be happening.

 

“Mm, yeah, absolutely,” Josh tells her absentmindedly, looking around to see if he can spot anyone who might look like his siblings in the crowd. Sarah frowns at him, but he doesn’t even notice as he scans the sidewalk.

 

“Well then, let’s get inside then,” she says to him and Josh offers his elbow for her and she slips her hand through and grabs tightly.

 

\---

“Bride or Groom?” a tall, well built, dark haired man asks Josh and Sarah as the follow the signs to the Olympian Ballroom. He was probably a year or two younger than Josh, but he was wider and more solid than he ever hoped he could be.

 

Josh eyes him up and down quickly, trying to see if he knew who he was, and when he decided it was definitely a ‘no’, he mutters his answer and the kid points over to the side he was meant to join for the bride’s side of the celebration.

 

Sarah pulls him to the back of the hall, the chairs all covered in pristine white covers with light, sky blue ribbons tied around them. There were two other guys dotted around the room in the same outfit as the man who had greeted them – dark blue suits with the same sky blue waistcoats and bowties – and Josh looks at them both as he settles down in the last row in the corner, behind one of the fifteen pillars dotted around the room so he could hide.

 

He feels his heart jump into his chest as he looks at the boy at the front of the hall, shaking hands with familiar people on the bride’s side and he knows his mouth is hanging open as he takes in all of his brother’s features.

 

“What? What is it?” Sarah feels him still next to her and follows his line of sight to the brown haired boy laughing freely at something one of the guests had said.

 

“It’s Jordan,” he tells her, and feels his forehead furrow and his eyes fill as he realises it’s the first time in nearly five years he had seen his brother. He feels the woman’s hand squeeze his shoulder to try and give him some comfort.

 

“Yeah, he’s really grown up hasn’t he?” she says quietly and Josh just nods, his throat feeling thick as he tries to swallow around the lump that had formed in it suddenly. “How old is he now?”

 

“Eighteen,” Josh replies, and swipes at his eyes to stop the tears from falling. He watches as the other kid walking around in the same outfit walks up to him, and Jordan puts his arm protectively around him, and pulls him closer, ruffling the kid’s hair. “Who’s that?” he asks Sarah, who just shrugs and goes back to looking around at the others starting to file in.

 

She sees a few people she obviously knows and makes sure Josh is fine on his own as she disappears off to go and speak to them. He watches her go and sees her greet some vaguely familiar older people. When he sees her point over to him, he observes the look of shock in their faces and then tries to busy himself by flicking through the book of psalms that had been left out on the seats for people to read through, and then admiring his own fingernails as if he had never seen anything more exciting in his life.

 

“So is the look of shock and surprise something I should be getting used to?” he asks as he hears a _whump_ next to him and the familiar warmth spreads to his side. He rolls his eyes as he looks up to his aunt, but instead he faces the familiar warm brown eyes of Jordan looking back at him.

 

Stunned into silence, finding his only brother sitting next to him for the first time in four years, Josh reaches up and scratches at the back of his neck before running his hands through his purple hair, destroying any remaining semblance of neatness he had managed to infuse in it that morning.

 

“Jordan,” his breath hitches at the familiarity of the name on his tongue and he offers a small smile at him as he searches for some happiness of welcome in his sibling’s eyes.

 

“What are you doing here?” are the only words out of his mouth, and his eyes turn to stone as he glares at Josh hardly, almost spitting the question at him. “This is meant to be a special day, not with losers like you pitching up to destroy mom’s happiness,” he hisses out with malice, and Josh’s face pales as he hears the words.

 

“Jorda- “

 

“No! Joshua, you walked out on us! Dad died and you left, and mom was right, you only think about yourself and what _you_ want!”

 

“Are you quite finished?” comes a terse voice from then end of the row and both boys look up and into the clearly upset and angry face of their aunt.

 

“Oh, Aunt Sarah, lovely to see you,” Jordan’s demeanour shifts to one of welcoming and pleasant as he realises his father’s sister is standing glaring back at him.

 

“Jordan, leave me and your brother please,” she tells him with an air of authority Josh wished she was able to bring to her own son. Jordan scurries back to the front of the hall, looking back to give one last filthy look at Josh. “Are you alright?” she asks as she sits down and puts her arm around the drummer’s shoulders. “Josh, you’re shaking! Let’s get you out of here,” and she starts looking around for the way out.

 

“No!” Josh almost shouts at her. “No, sorry, but no, I’m not gonna ruin this any more than I already have. We’ll stay, and I’ll stay out of the way, but I want to see Abs and Ash as well. Then we’ll go, okay?” he looks at the older woman with so much earnest that she can’t say no and that was what Josh was counting on. Now he was here he wanted to see this through.

 

Suddenly, through the generalised murmur and mumbles of the congregation and their individual conversations, a chord is struck on the large organ installed in the corner of the ridiculously sized function room. Pachelbel’s Canon in D starts to play stiltedly from the instrument and everyone’s head turns to the back of the hall to see Jordan appear with Laura Dun radiating happiness and warmth all around her.

 

The modestly cut ivory satin gown fell perfectly from her figure and her hair was immaculate as she starts to walk slowly down the aisle, looking around at everyone as she goes. Josh can’t decide whether it is done purposefully or not, but she definitely does not look towards his row as she passes, but he gasps again as he sees the now grown up figures of Ashley and Abigail as they pass in the same sky blue colour that adorned everything else with another girl Josh didn’t recognise.  

 

Not wanting to catch anyone’s eye and cause a problem, Josh turns to face the front where he notices that a tall greying man in a black tuxedo had stood and was beaming back at the bride walking towards him. His best man was stood next to him. The man was clearly a head shorter than him and his back was to Josh, talking and saying something quickly to the two ushers that Josh hadn’t recognised when he saw them.

 

He could see the urgency that he was telling them something and he smiles to himself in relief that he wasn’t in any way part of this entire day – at least keeping himself out of stress was a good reason to abandon your family, he thinks sarcastically to himself.

 

As his mother, brother and sisters reach the end of the aisle, the best man finally turns around and beams his own smile at the family. Josh audibly gasps as the final note of the song play and having heard it, the bride and groom and their respective entourages all turn to see where the sound had come from.

 

Much to Josh’s dismay however, the first person to find his own eyes were the soft brown he had dreamt about every night for the past week. He watches as those soft lips part in shock as well and lines start to crease the tanned forehead.

 

Immediately, Josh sinks back into his own seat, and puts his head in his hands, desperately hoping that Tyler hadn’t noticed him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pachelbel's Canon in D - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvNQLJ1_HQ0
> 
> So here it is, hope you enjoyed. Please let me know, I take all kinds of comments, critique and theories!!
> 
> Also, come and find me on Tumblr if you want to!!
> 
> <3


	9. Chapter 9

As soon as the ceremony had finished, and the bride and groom had made their way happily down the aisle and out to relax for a while together, Josh had jumped out and run out of the hall completely.

 

Luckily, the bar had opened for the guests to get refreshments before the meal and while the wedding party had their photos taken. Josh walks quickly up to the bar and taps on the dark wooden counter for attention from the bar men chatting genially amongst themselves at the end of the room. He rolls his eyes and coughs louder as his initial attempts to get attention were ignored and finally one of them walks slowly over to him with his eyebrows raised in a question.

 

“Hey bud, what can I get you?” the guy asks and Josh mumbles something about needing a scotch. The bartender looks at him sceptically, but pours his measure before going to see to some of the other guests who had also managed to file out.

 

Downing the shot, barely even noticing the liquid burning his throat as it flows down, he slams the glass back on the bar and lets his mind race through everything that had just happened.

 

So it turns out his brother and his family still hate him, not that that was any big surprise. Sure, loads of scenarios had been flowing through his head since he realised he was going to have to go this thing. He would be lying if one of them wasn’t that he had been welcomed back with open arms, his mother and siblings crying that they were always in the wrong and they needed him home – but yeah, the likelihood of this actually happening was very low.

 

“You want anything else dude?” he was jolted from his own head by the same bar tender that had served him earlier. Josh looks up and directly at him and takes in the look of the guy in front of him.

 

He had a kind face, and was maybe slightly older than the drummer. His hair was grown over his ears and brushed fashionably forward. If Josh was back in LA, he would definitely be flirting, but with his current mood and feelings that was something that was as far as possible from his mind. Josh looks around at the congregating guests in the yellow wood panelled room and sees nearly everyone with a glass of something.

 

“Er, just whatever everyone else is drinking,” he says absentmindedly and scrubs his hand over his face, trying to get himself feeling a bit more like his normal self again.

 

The guy brings over a champagne flute of sparkling wine and hands it to Josh with a smile. “I’m Ben, by the way,” he says with a wink.

 

Josh takes the glass and sips lightly from it, letting the alcohol take him over. “Josh,” he says in return, but doesn’t smile. Taking the hint, the other man’s smile drops from his face and disappears again.

 

Quickly out of sight and out of mind, Josh’s memories return to the moment he saw Tyler standing at the front of the aisle with his sister’s and brother and smiling widely. He knows that Tyler had seen him. His hair was bright purple, and he had locked eyes with him, there was no way Josh was lucky enough to get away with the object of his desires _not_ seeing him.

 

That had been bad enough. It really had, the guy had literally told him the day before that he thought Josh was trash, but to see him in a place he was really uncomfortable was a lot. He had assumed at that moment that the man was a good friend of the groom, and that was why he was standing up there with them. That was until the vows. When his mother had welcomed Tyler, Zack, Maddy and Jay to the family and already thought of them as her own children.

 

Not only did that hurt in the worst way possible – Josh had been left out of all of the family speeches during the service and wasn’t even mentioned by the minister when he thanked the Dun children for helping to set the day up. Not only that, but now it turns out that the man with the sweetest face, smile and softest eyes he had ever seen was now his brother.

 

“Crap, I need more alcohol,” he mutters as he downs the last of the wine.

 

\---

Tyler puts his head in his hands as he waits for his father and step-mom to come back from wherever they had gone after the ceremony to have ‘alone time’. He drags his hand down his face and exhales deeply while he settles down in one of the leather, straight backed chairs that had been dotted around the ‘waiting room’ – somewhere where the family was able to get away from the constant talking of the guests.

 

“Yes guys! C’mon! Finally related!” Zack bursts in and grabs his new sisters and pulls them into a big bear hug, which they all laughed at.

 

Tyler – like Josh – was the eldest of all of his siblings too, and because of that he also had the honour of being his father’s best man today. What he hadn’t expected was to see the wide eyed look of Josh sitting at the back of the room, clearly appalled at what he had been witnessing.

 

His dad and Josh’s mom had been together for three years. They had met in the same hospital one fateful evening when getting coffee and found out they had a lot in common – including both of their spouses being affected by one of the cruellest diseases. They had both been a tower of strength for each other as the diseases progressed and a year after each had said good bye to their other halves they realised the comfort and support they had provided had morphed into something different and special.

 

Tyler had loved his mom with all of his being, but when he saw how happy Laura had made his dad again, he had welcomed her with open arms. And to everyone’s surprise all the kids got along too. All being around the same age was a bonus, and they all melded like they had been one big Brady Bunch all their lives instead of for the last few years.  

 

Josh. Well Josh had been mentioned on and off during that time. He had always been the ‘unknown’. An enigma with no real context, but he always knew that he had abandoned his entire family when they had found out he was gay and when his dad had passed, not wanting to help his siblings and mom to look after the house. He also knew that the fact he was gay was also a bone of contention for the family – Laura not really accepting that fact. But in the time Tyler had known her, she had mellowed slightly to the point where she would actually accept Abi’s openly gay best friend into the house without comment.

 

“Ty, get in here, man,” Zack shouts to his brother and Tyler looks over to the group huddle that seemed to have formed while he was lost in his own head. He loosens his bow tie slightly and shakes his head no.

 

“Tyler, are you okay?” a hand touches him lightly on his thigh as he continues to sit and think. He looks down at it and admires the long freshly manicured nails and elegant fingers on his leg and then flicks his eyes up to the blond haired, blue eyed face of the girl sitting next to him, her legs crossed, sitting next to him, dressed in a short iridescent blue slip dress that fit her body perfectly.

 

Tyler sighs as he gives her a small smile in response. He hated himself that he had stooped as low as to ask his colleague and friend to this thing, pretending he actually wanted to date her. He liked Jenna, he really did, and if he was straight she would be absolutely perfect for him, but he had been in this situation for five years and he knew he was not able to be his true self around his family.

 

Tyler had started asking Jenna out on a number of smaller ‘not-quite’ dates over the past few weeks in preparation for bringing her to the wedding. They had shared one or two very chaste kisses, but nothing more than that, Tyler making up some excuses of wanting to abstain, or take things slow – and Jenna being possibly even more religious than his family was more than happy to wait.

 

“Yeah, I’m good! I’m just really tired is all,” he says as an excuse, smiling at her again. She smiles back sweetly at him and slides her arm under his so they were sitting arm in arm. He noticed Zack and Jordan both giving him a knowing look.

 

The group of newly formed siblings all fall into different chairs and start to have small conversations amongst each other before Jordan slowly slides up to Tyler and Jenna, pulling a chair over as well and sitting next to them.

 

“You good dude?” Tyler asks him, shaking off his funk and throwing his arm around his new little brother’s shoulders and hugging him.

 

“Yeah, I’m cool,” Jordan says, looking around him as he pulls away from the embrace. “Ty, I don’t know what to do,” he says his voice quiet as if he doesn’t want anyone else to hear him. Jenna and Tyler both lean in instinctively to hear better.

 

“Why? What’s up?”

 

“I saw…” he swallows thickly, still looking around him. “Josh,” he mouths to the older man so that no one can hear him.

 

Tyler rolls his eyes at the admission. He knew that they would all see him sooner or later if he was at the ceremony. He still had no idea how he was invited because he remembers every invitation that went out and none of them were to him.

 

“Who’s Josh?” Jenna asks, quietly, obviously enjoying being included in the cloak and dagger stuff going on.

 

“My brother,” Jordan says quickly. “We’ve not seen him for four years, but he’s here now,” he says almost angrily.

 

“Jord, come on, he’s not that bad,” Tyler says without even thinking. Jordan looks at him incredulously, not believing what he was hearing.

 

“Tyler, you weren’t there! Arguments all the time; mom and dad arguing; he never came to see dad at the hospital, and once the funeral was done he took all of his money and left without a word!”

 

“That’s terrible!” Jenna says, her face one of pure emotion and anguish for the family she was now friendly with.

 

“Yeah, okay, sorry,” Tyler shakes his head, trying to come to terms with the evil Josh Dun he had had years of stories of compared to the sweet, funny, almond shaped beauty he had met that week. “So what’s the problem?”

 

“Well he’s here with my Aunt Sarah, so he’s gonna be here for the party and the food. But I don’t know how to keep him away from mom and everyone else?”

 

“Well, maybe you tell Laura now?” Tyler says to him, the sooner she knew he was there, the easier it was going to be for her – and him – to avoid him.

 

“Y’think?” he looks unsure, as if he thought they should try and get rid of the problem completely.

 

“Well, he may not have been personally invited, but if your aunt is we can’t just yank him out of here can we?”

 

Jordan thinks about that scenario for a moment and then nods slowly, disappearing out of the room to find his mother. Tyler lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. He had no idea that anyone else had seen Josh and it made him feel a lot better knowing he wasn’t the only one with this secret hanging over him.

 

“Have you ever met Josh?”

 

“Hm? Me?” Tyler looks at his date and then at the floor, contemplating his answer. “Nope, never even seen a picture of the guy,” he says. He already felt like crap. What was one more lie to add to the pile?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Okay, so I just want to say - 
> 
> I have no beef with any of the family members irl. Seriously, they all seem like they love and support the boys in their careers. But this is AU, so for dramatic affect i'm sure you can get the call I made here?
> 
> Anyway!! Hope you're enjoying this and as always let me know!!


	10. Chapter 10

Cocktail hour had passed much the way Josh had thought it would. He had avoided everyone – including Jamie and Sarah – and had sat at the bar with just his thoughts and the free alcohol.

 

Feeling his cell buzz in his pocket, he fishes it out with a sigh and looks at the message on screen.

 

_Brendon – Royalties day bitch! Enjoy!!_

Josh rolls his eyes and puts his phone back in his pocket. He smiles slightly at the thought of having a bit more money in his account for a while instead of relying on his meagre store income. He had met Brendon in Los Angeles, him being one of the more multi-talented of the agency Josh had worked for – being able to song write, play guitar and the piano for the people needing the help. He knows if he leaves the message on read long enough he would get an irate message demanding why he was being ignored, but Josh was really unable to even think of a reply to his friend.

 

He downs another pink cocktail that had been provided kindly by the staff behind the bar and slams the glass on the table, accidentally knocking over one of the other glasses there. Embarrassed, he looks around and manages to catch both before settling them down on the bar in front of him, drunkenly shushing them as if they had done it on purpose.

 

On the stage in the hall, he heard the sound of music starting, and in his more than slightly drunken brain, Josh decided he would go and see what was happening and he meanders towards the large double glass doors towards the sounds.

 

Inside the room that had been previously set up for the ceremony, there were now large round tables set up for seating twelve people; long banqueting tables set up with a buffet meal and flashing lights surrounding a large dance floor. At the end was a large DJ turntable set up and the most recent Christian pop music was being blasted out of the speakers.

 

Josh was standing in the doorway, rather in the way of people trying to get in and sit down, and was being constantly jostled as he stood like a statue letting his drunken mind take in what was going on.

 

In the middle of the dance floor his two sisters were dancing with two handsome men about their ages and smiling happily at everything going on. Josh smiles to himself as he realises they had both grown into beautiful young women. Yes, he had seen them as they walked down the aisle, but now with them letting loose and relaxing in their element, he can tell that they are happy and settled and it makes him feel nostalgic for the many years he had missed out on.

 

He makes up his mind to g and speak to them, but suddenly his elbow is grabbed and he is marched away from the dancefloor and towards an empty table far away in the darkest corner.

 

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” he exclaims loudly as he’s moved forcefully away from the girls and is literally forced into the seat.

 

“Saving you – or at least stopping you – from making too much of a fool out of yourself,” Sarah says, frowning at him, before looking around at the food. “Stay here. Do not move,” she glares at Josh until he reluctantly nods at her and slumps in the fabric covered chair.

 

He glances down at the place setting and sees the name card has his uncle’s name on it, which causes him to burst into giggles. He picks up one of the chop sticks sitting at the table – presumably for the large array of colourful sushi he was able to see – and starts tapping it on the edge of the table along with the beat of the song being played.

 

Before he realised, Sarah was back at the table, a white china plate piled high with finger food, chicken skewers, melon balls, sushi, spaghetti – in fact most of the buffet – and had placed it right in front of her nephew.

 

Josh looks at the plate as if it had grown a head and then looked up at his aunt questioningly. “What do you want me to do with all that?” he asks her, looking back at the pile and almost turning green at the amount of food in front of him.

 

“Eat it,” she tells him insistently.

 

Josh looks at the serious look on her face and takes a deep breath in before starting on the small mountain of food.

 

“For crying out loud, Josh, how much did you drink?” she sighs, sitting down next to him as he chews slowly. He shrugs as he consumes as much as possible. “Look, I know it’s been an ordeal, but drinking the bar wasn’t the way to deal.”

 

Josh grunts in reply, taking a drink of the water that Sarah had also poured for him and watched as a few other people came and joined them at the table. Everyone waves politely as they leave their shrugs and coats and then heads back over to the food.

 

“How you feeling?” the woman asks him as he groans, having made quick work of the pile of food and settling back in his chair.

 

“Dunno,” Josh mutters and looks at her sadly. “Just want to see the girls,” he says, eyes wide.

 

“I know you do kiddo,” and she pulls him towards her and puts her arm around him, planting a soft kiss on his temple to try and reassure him. “But not drunk, okay?” He nods into her shoulder, sighing again. Suddenly he chuckles, and Sarah looks down at him confused. “What?”

 

“It’s royalties day,” he continues to chuckle as he explains. “And I’m the drummer on this song,” he laughs again as one of the first songs he recorded for plays over the speakers.

 

Both of them look towards the floor as they notice that the only people dancing were Laura and her new husband Chris. They had clearly missed the announcement for the first dance and the two of them were swaying slowly to a song that had her estranged son playing his signature style in the bass line.

 

Josh watches, his mouth agape, but feels his shoulders shaking almost uncontrollably as he continues to watch his mom and step father dancing. What made the whole thing even funnier to him was that he knew the song had been written about the singer’s love for alcohol and sex. Unable to maintain any semblance of calm at all, he jumps out of his seat, looking at his aunt and reassuring her that he was fine before escaping out of the door of the room as quickly as possible and into the evening air.

 

The emergency exit flies open and the stillness and coldness hits him full force and makes him feel even more sober in a much more effective way than eating ever could. Josh’s laughter finally bubbles up and he can’t stop himself from exploding with noise. He reaches his hand out and falls against the red brick he finds surrounding the courtyard that had been allocated to their party for the smokers so they weren’t littering the front side walk.

 

Not alone, a younger man is standing nearby, a lit cigarette hanging from his lips as he looks through his phone for something. He smiles at Josh when he notices him and saunters over, swinging his hips from side to side.

 

“Well, hey there honey,” the guy says to him and Josh gives him a shy smile back, his laughter fading when he realises he’s not alone.

 

Josh takes a moment to fully assess the man in front of him. Probably younger than Josh by a few years, he was dressed in a full three-piece tuxedo with bow tie, but with small flourishes of colour on his fingernails and Josh notices a small amount of make-up dusting his face.

 

“I’m Christian,” he purrs, getting closer to the drummer and holding his hand out, limp wristed and waited patiently for Josh to shake it.

 

“Josh,” he replies finally, and takes the hand and shakes it firmly.

 

It wasn’t as if Josh wasn’t used to people hitting on him – in LA it was regular, especially in the clubs that his friends made him go to. He was a regular on the gay scene and had his fair share of hook ups. But this guy really wasn’t Josh’s type. But, Josh had no one else to talk to so he was going to at least entertain the boy for a while longer.

 

“Haven’t seen you around here before, you a friend of the family?” Christian asks, leaving his hand in Josh’s for a beat longer than was necessary, and eventually Josh just drops it to make himself feel more comfortable.

 

“Something like that,” Josh says to him with a non-committal smile, not wanting to explain anything to the stranger who was flirting with him.

 

“So how long have you known them for? I mean, I’ve known them for years and I’ve never seen you around,” the younger man asks, overly interested in anything to do with Josh.

 

Josh narrows his eyes and frowns, appraising the kid in front of him again, trying to decide whether it would be worth his time flirting back at all.

 

“Years, huh?” he finally chooses to ask, diverting all attention from himself.

 

“Yeah! I mean I’m Abigail’s best friend,” he does a gesture with his hands back towards the door of the hall, and Josh notices it’s more of a flourish than anything else.

 

Josh internally groans at the admission. Even if he was interested, as soon as that titbit of information was offered to him he automatically withdrew any flirtation he had been considering. Unfortunately, Christian didn’t seem to get the non-verbal message as he steps further into Josh’s space – the other man not being able to go anywhere due to the wall being at his back now. The kid raises a hand to Josh’s cheek and opens his mouth to say something when there is a loud clearing of the throat behind them both.

 

Josh takes the moment of distraction to duck out of the way of the other man, separating them easily now Christian wasn’t paying attention.

 

“Christian, Abi’s looking for you,” a familiar voice says.

 

Josh huffs a laugh to himself and bites at his lower lip as he shakes his head, realising exactly who was there. He looks down at the paving slabs and kicks his toe into them I frustration.

 

“Awesome! Thanks Tyler,” the guy says. He throws Josh a seductive glance as he walks backwards towards the door.

 

There was a click of the emergency exit shutting behind them and then the two men were thrust into silence, neither knowing exactly what to say. Josh takes a chance and looks up at Tyler to see what he was doing, and was surprised to see the other was staring back at him, his eyes dark and dangerous.

 

“So, this was a shock,” Josh says finally, thrusting his hands into his pockets, not knowing what to do with them.

 

“Less so for me,” Tyler replies offhandedly, but Josh can feel the other man watching his every move, almost stalking him with his eyes.

 

“At least what you said makes sense now. I take it my mom is as proud of me as she always has been,” he jokes sarcastically, not even expecting an answer.

 

“Hmm,” Tyler hums, crossing his arms. “But look where I find you, in some back alley with your sister’s best friend,” and the danger in Tyler’s voice has Josh starting and looking directly at him for the first time.

 

The darkness in his eyes that Josh had first mistaken for anger, was now sparkling as he took him in, watching the drummer pace backwards and forwards. The warm caramel colour was almost eradicated with the blown black of his pupils, and his hair was dishevelled as if he had spent a lot of time running his hands through it. All product that was in it for the ceremony had vanished and it was as fluffy as Josh remembered it. Josh had to stop himself from reaching out and touching it.

 

Before he knew it, Tyler had stepped forward into his space and Josh stumbled backwards into the wall again. Whereas with Christian he had wanted to find any way to escape, now – with Tyler in front of him and looking as turned on as he did – he just wanted time to stop and for the moment to take him over.

 

“You like meeting guys in dark alleys, Joshua?” Tyler rasps, his voice hoarse and as lust filled as his eyes. Josh gulps, and Tyler’s eyes shift to his throat, watching his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. He cocks an eyebrow at the movement and smirks at him.

 

“No,” he manages to get out, but he knew the hardening bulge in his pants would give away his feelings if Tyler dropped his eyes to look.

 

Placing both hands either side of his head on the wall and bracketing him in so he couldn’t escape, Tyler thrusts his knee between Josh’s leg and exerts the perfect amount of pressure on his groin, and Josh mewls in response, closing his eyes in pleasure.

 

“Is it just me then, Joshua?” Tyler growls into his ear, causing a shiver to run up and down Josh’s spine in response, and making his dick leap at the sound. Josh screws his eyes closed and nods, not trusting his voice. “Good,” Tyler says finally, and reaches his head forward, letting their lips join.

 

Josh moans as what he had wanted from the moment he had seen Tyler that afternoon finally happened again. The feeling of ‘coming home’ that he had had when they had first kissed was still there, but this time there was an urgency behind it, a passion that they hadn’t managed to work up to on their date, and with that Josh started to grind against Tyler’s thigh as their tongues worked in tandem, learning each peak and trough of their mouth.

 

They break apart for air, and as Josh gasps for oxygen, Tyler whispers into his ear, “I never want to see you that close to anyone else, do you hear me?” and Josh just nods again as he grabs for Tyler’s lips again.

 

A bang causes them to jump apart, and they both walk in separate directions, trying to calm themselves. Josh watches Tyler run his hands through his hair again to try and tame where Josh had been pulling at it not seconds earlier and Josh wipes over his lips to try and calm the redness and swelling he knew would be there.

 

“Ah, Tyler here you are,” an unfamiliar voice says and the man who was now Josh’s step father walks into view. “And…Josh! Wow,” the man says with a slight smile, and Josh looks at him confused as to why his new father figure would be pleased to see him. “I was actually looking for you Josh,” Chris Joseph says to him and both Tyler and Josh continue to look confused.

 

“Jordan told me that he had seen you, and I wanted to come and introduce myself, but also ask if you would come for dinner tomorrow night,” the man says and looks at his step son with a cunning smile.

 

Josh looks between the two men in front of him and has no idea what to say.


	11. Chapter 11

“So are you going?”

 

“Aw, I don’t know dude,” Josh pulls his tie from around his neck and throws it on the sofa before collapsing onto his make shift bed and sighing loudly.

 

Cradling his cell phone between his neck and his ear, he starts unfastening the top two buttons of his shirt to try and get a bit more comfortable. He grabs hold of the handset before letting his head fall backwards and closing his eyes.

 

“If I go, I have to put up with everything mom will throw at me, but if I don’t I’ll have no one but myself to blame when I start complaining they don’t want anything to do with me,” Josh talks his options through with his best friend on the other end of the phone.

 

Brendon had been the first person he had called once he had managed to find his aunt and cousin and escape back to the apartment. Sarah had managed to afford a hotel room for herself and Jamie – something she wasn’t able to do often anymore – and that meant that Josh had the entire apartment to himself to do whatever he wanted.

 

Brendon was also the only person that actually knew the ins and out of his family problems. Coming from a religious family himself, his parents were less than thrilled to find out they had raised a bisexual extrovert who had no filter and enough energy to power the eastern seaboard. It was one of the things that had bonded them together when he was in LA.

 

“Yeah, and if you don’t go you’ll miss out on some sexy incest fun,” Brendon laughs down the phone and Josh goes quiet. “I can hear the disapproving look you’re giving me from here asshole,” he says after a moment of silence.

 

“I told you that in confidence, not so you could make fun of me!” Josh groans as he puts his hand over his face to hide his embarrassment from absolutely no one. “Anyway, not incest. He’s my _step_ brother…and is it even a thing when you’ve been disowned from the family?” he adds questioningly, actually wanting an honest answer.

 

“Whatever, you say to-may-to…” Brendon says off handedly as he continues to talk. “I think you should go. Go and see exactly what momma dearest has to say for herself. And if you need me there, say the word and I’m on the red eye out there tonight,” he adds earnestly, and Josh hears noises in the background that sound suspiciously like he was pulling out clothes to start packing.

 

“Bren, I’m not gonna need any help right now,” trying to stop him before he got himself an online boarding pass to Ohio. “But I promise I’ll call if I need you,” he adds, sincerely. He really did miss his friend.

 

“Yeah, okay dick wad,” he says, resorting to his normal insults when he feels things are getting too heavy emotionally. “Call me tomorrow,” he adds and makes a kissing noise down the phone before hanging up.

 

Josh looks at the phone in his hand for a moment longer before hitting the power button and switching off the screen.

 

“Guess I’m seeing the folks tomorrow then,” he sighs to himself and folds himself fully dressed under his blanket and falls into a fitful slumber.

 

\---

The alarm went off on Josh’s phone at the normal time for a Sunday in time for him to get up and ready for church, but for the first time since he had returned home he was unable to get the motivation together to get out of bed.

 

He stretches out on the couch, feeling each and every crack and pop from his joints as they settle back into place from his uncomfortable night’s sleep. His mouth tasted like he had made out with a trash can before he had gone to bed and he felt like someone was playing a mambo in his head – and badly at that.

 

Groaning loudly, glad that he was alone and could make as much noise as he wanted, he sits on the edge of the seat, and pulls his shirt over his head so he was less restricted. Downing the glass of water he had thoughtfully placed next to him the night before, he then gets up, shedding the rest of his clothes as he goes towards the bathroom and the promise of a shower that it held.

 

Turning the faucet to the perfect strength and temperature, the drummer slips under the spray and lets the water consume and refresh him. He grabs his own shower gel and lathers up the perfect amount of soap before rubbing it all over him, trying to wash away the hangover that he knew could be smelt from a mile away.

 

Running his hands over his perfectly toned chest – something he was rather proud of – he realised again that he was alone in the apartment and let his hand slowly trail further south, soaping up the dark hair trailing below his belly button and between his legs.

 

He morning hard on hadn’t subsided since he had woken and as soon as he fisted his cock with a slicked fist, he moans loudly and the blood rushes immediately to his dick, causing it to grow and hang heavily against him.

 

Not wanting to waste any time at all, and trying to relish the rare experience of having time to himself, he glides his hand quickly up and down his shaft, twisting it expertly at the head, making his knees tremble at the feeling. Using his other hand, he reaches behind him and rubs down the crease of his butt, finding the furled hole and rubbing more soap over it before raising a leg to rest against the shower chair and sliding in a finger in one swift movement.

 

He had never had to have a lot of prep when he had sex, something that his partners always loved and he found saved a lot of time when he was hooking up with people in clubs. He almost immediately slides in a second finger and bends over his raised knee trying to find that perfect spot – all the time fisting himself as quick as he can.

 

The tell-tale tingling in the base of his spine starts to burn, and Josh feels his eyes gliding shut and he rocks backwards on his fingers and forwards into his own hand. Throwing his head back, he automatically brings the previous night to the forefront if his mind – the commanding voice that Tyler had used when talking to him, almost degrading him, but not quite. The delicious hard press of Tyler’s lips against his, and suddenly with a shift of his fingers, he finds the right spot within him and he feels the release coming from his heavy balls and cock, coating his hand with the white pearlescent liquid which is quickly washed down the drain with the remnants of his soap.

 

Coming down from his high, he rests his forehead against the cool tile, before rinsing off for a final time and turning the water off. He climbs out of the shower and puts a towel round his waist before walking out into the cool living area, trailing wet footsteps behind him. Noticing the time was nearing noon and realising his normal Sunday routine was completely ruined, he frowns and walks to fins clean clothes to wear.

 

Torn between trying to make an effort and wanting to be himself, he decides on a plain white tee shirt and black tight jeans with a black trucker cap to top it off, hiding the purple that he knew his mother would comment on if she could see it immediately. He blows a hard rush of air out through his lips making a noise that surprised even him as he bends to slide his feet in his black Vans and ties the laces.

 

He stands up straight and looks around him – not too sure exactly what he was looking for. He grabs his wallet and keys from the side table at the front door where he had thrown the previous evening and taps his car key against his knuckles, contemplating whether this was something he actually wanted to do.

 

“Suck it up Josh,” he mumbles to himself and finally grabs his phone before heading out of the door.

 

\---

It had taken him three passes in his car, and the another twenty minutes sitting in his slowly freezing car before Josh had plucked up enough courage to walk the front path to the large white wooden front door.

 

He had taken in everything of the house he had grown up in as he had sat there. Nothing had changed. The screen door still seemed to have the small tear in it that he and Ash had done when they were kids and no one had ever gotten around to fix. There was still a large prickly bush in the front garden that no matter how hard he tried, Jordan would always hurt himself on when he walked past it. But there were some new additions too. Small pieces of pottery proclaiming old proverbs and statements of family and love were dotted around the place and a white porch swing had also been added, currently covered in the left over ice from the freezing night before.

 

He rubs his hands together to let the friction warm him up, before eventually pressing the brass button next to the door. The chimes of the doorbell rings out and he can almost feel the entire house take a breath in before he then hears footsteps come to the front door and the clicking before it swings inward, displaying his now grown up baby sister in front of him.

 

Nothing is said for what feels like an eternity and Josh takes the moment to observe all the changes about Abigail. Her hair was longer, a deep auburn colour, the same as Ashley’s and her face was beautiful.

 

“Hi Abs,” Josh is the first to speak and gives her a small shy smile.

 

“Joshua!” she exclaims finally, and pitches forward to grab her older brother into a tight embrace, something that Josh really wasn’t expecting at all. “I’m so glad you came! When Chris told us he had invited you I was so excited! I missed you big brother,” the words seem to come tumbling out of her mouth as she pulls him inside and Josh almost feels the need to escape, the overbearing welcome from his sister something he was extremely uncomfortable with.

 

“Abi, wait, hang on,” he manages to get out before she stops and stands looking at him expectantly, not letting go of his hand that she had grabbed during the welcome. “I…just, uhm, need a minute, yeah?” he says, trying not to hurt her feelings at all.

 

A loud scoffing noise comes from the direction of the living room and Josh immediately turns his head to where the noise had come from. It was eerily familiar for him, and a host of harrowing memories came flooding to the fore front of his mind as he realises who the sound came from.

 

Letting go of Abi, he walks towards the room, swallowing thickly past a lump that had formed in his throat. He pushes the partially closed door open and sees sitting in front of him the woman who’s wedding he had attended the previous day.

 

Sitting now in loose jeans, scooped neck twin set and embellished with pearls around her neck, Josh’s mother sat with her legs crossed, almost as if she was a queen overseeing her kingdom. She had a look on her face as if she had smelled something awful as she looked over her son from top to toe. He felt the ever present judgement in her glare. He didn’t even notice who else was in the room as he takes a breath in.

 

“Hi, mom,” escapes his lips without him even thinking about it.

 

“I think you’ve had longer than a minute to figure yourself out, Joshua. Now it’s time for us to have our say.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come and find me on Tumblr (Basnatural)! I don't bite!!


	12. Chapter 12

“Now Laura, please at least let him relax a bit,” Chris Joseph’s words pierce into Josh’s brain as he looks at his mom, all the feelings he had locked away for so many years now flying right back to the front of his mind.

 

He looked at the woman who had raised him for nearly all of his life, but for so much of it made him feel like a nothing. He can’t help it, but a small spark of love still flares within him. Her hair has changed since the last time he really saw her. Dyed with blond highlights, it sits framing her face beautifully and Josh still thinks she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He blushes at the insult that she throws at him as the first words in four years she has actually uttered to him, and he feels immediately uncomfortable around her.

 

Chris moves to sit on the arm of the chair that Laura is sitting in. She is clearly trying to assert some sort of dominance, her legs and arms both crossed and sitting poker straight in the large chair – completely juxtaposing the comfort it was meant to give. Josh hadn’t really had time to take in his new father figure the previous day. His salt and pepper hair atop of skin the same colour as his son’s – almost sun kissed, belying some foreign ancestry somewhere there. His dark eyes were appraising his new family member, and Josh felt even more scrutinised as the silence continued.

 

There was only the three of them in the room. As soon as Josh had entered, Abi had disappeared and Josh had yet to see his other siblings. He wondered quickly where everyone was – Tyler – but his focus quickly re-centred as the man started talking again.

 

“Joshua, would you like to have a seat?” Chris asks politely, making Josh suspicious more than anything. From Tyler’s reaction to him he knew that his mom had told the new part of the family certain things about him and so now he was just waiting for the name calling and blaming to start.

 

Despite this, Josh walks cautiously over to the large couch, perching on the edge of the cushions, tucking his clasped hands between his knees to stop his nervous habit of picking at the skin at the side of his nails. He swallows thickly and takes in all the changes that had happened in the room that should be so familiar to him. Chewing the inside of his cheek and raising his eyebrows, he looks back over to his mother who was still looking at him as if something had crawled in front of her and died. Chris put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him as if to try and relax her.

 

“So, obviously I’ve heard a lot about you Josh, I thought it would be nice to officially introduce myself and my family to the ‘missing son’,” The man looks up at his elder and gives him a questioning look.

 

“Where is everyone?” he asks his mom, avoiding any questions about himself.

 

“Well, Abigail is upstairs, Ashley is out with her fiancé, Jordan is due back any minute with my youngest, Jay. Zack and Maddy are both out with friends tonight and Tyler should be back soon too,” Chris fills in for his wife. Josh looks at him closely and nods slowly.

 

“Let’s cut straight to the point shall we Joshua? Why are you back?” Laura almost spits the question at him, almost as if she was accusing him of something.

 

“Why do you care mom?” Josh retorts, not with as much venom as his mother, but in a way that made it quite clear he wasn’t going to sit and take everything she threw at him.

 

“Why do I care? _Why do I care?_ ” Laura almost shouts at him. “You treat this house like a hotel for years, destroy our family name in the church and then one day just up and disappear! We didn’t know if you were alive or dead Joshua!”

 

Josh scoffs at that. “Mom, you didn’t care if I was alive or dead!” he laughs as his mother’s face got pinker from frustration.

 

“Now, come on Josh, I’m sure that’s not true,” Chris interjects calmly. “Now, I’m sure things happened in the past that neither one of you are particularly proud of, but why don’t we take this opportunity to try and fix this?”

 

Josh watches Laura take a deep, calming breath as her anger seems to subside. “You’re right darling.”

 

Josh feels his eyes getting wider in surprise that his mother actually calmed down that quickly, and shuffles uncomfortably in his seat again because of it. He feels eyes on him again and looks up to see his mom looking at him a bit more gently.

 

“So, Josh, tell us what you’ve been up to,” she says, almost conversationally, as if it wasn’t the first time in four years she had seen her son.

 

“Uhm, well,” he starts, not exactly sure how to explain everything he had done in his time away when he was interrupted by a click and slam of the front door.

 

“Dad! Laura, I’m home!” comes the familiar voice from the direction of the front door. Josh steals himself for who he is about to see when he hears some mumbling like Tyler was talking to someone else and then his beautiful face appears at the door of the family room – and Josh gasps silently, the features still managing to take his breath away.

 

Still trying to decide whether to play dumb when it came to Tyler or to smile in greeting, Josh is even more surprised when the familiar blond girl from the weeding the night before walks through the door after him, clasping onto Tyler’s hand and smiling warmly at everyone in the room.

 

She was beautiful too, and if Josh had to admit it she was exactly the girl he would put with Tyler if he was going to be with anyone else. Slim, but shapely, attractive and with a warm smile, even Josh was having a hard time not smiling when he looked at her, and he was seriously jealous that she was holding the man’s hand.

 

To give Tyler his due, he looked surprised when he locked eyes with Josh finally, obviously either forgetting he had been invited or assuming he would not turn up at all.

 

After an awkward few moments of everyone looking at each other, someone makes a small noise and Josh sees Tyler physically shake himself back into action.

 

“Oh, gosh, I completely forgot we had company tonight,” he says finally, his left eye twitching slightly which made Josh fully aware he was lying. “Uhm, dad, Laura, you remember Jenna, from church,” he says and Jenna steps forward with a small wave.

 

“Of course! We only saw her last night Tyler!” Chris jokes with his son and laughs a booming laugh.

 

“It’s wonderful to see you again Jenna, are you staying for dinner?” Laura asks her with a beaming smile of her own and getting out of the seat and welcoming the woman with a warm hug. The jealousy eating away at Josh since she walked in suddenly stung again as he realises that his mom would never have greeted him that way.

 

“Oh, if that’s alright, I really don’t want to impose,” the girl says, clearly concerned.

 

“Nonsense, I cook like I’m feeding an army, but let me set another place at the table,” Laura replies and disappears quickly out of the room and into where Josh knows the dining room is situated. He rolls his eyes at her back and crosses his arms across his chest.

 

“I told you she would be alright,” Tyler moves so he is almost whispering into Jenna’s ear, before seeming to remember who was watching him and pulling away slightly.

 

“So Tyler, I think you might have met briefly yesterday, but this is Laura’s oldest son, Josh,” and he punctuates the end of the sentence with a look towards his own son which obviously meant something to the two of them. Josh was beyond caring at this point and was now looking for a way – polite or otherwise – to get out of the dinner.

 

“Ah yes, hi Josh,” Tyler says, almost too politely as he strides over and holds his hand out for Josh to shake. Josh narrows his eyes at him and stares at the hand. He had no idea what Tyler was up to, but he was almost completely done with the guy who had pulled him from pillar to post since he met him.

 

Rolling his eyes, and then leaning back into the sofa, Josh looks around Tyler and at Chris who has now moved into Laura’s discarded chair.

 

“So, Chris, tell me all about you then,” he asks with a smile, and with a slight spike of glee inside he watches as Tyler glares back at him open mouthed.

 

\---

Now, two hours later and Josh still hasn’t managed to get away from his ex-family and the man he has an undying crush on. He sighs loudly and checks his watch – seriously if he could make it any more obvious he wanted to leave he would be running out the door.

 

“…so that’s why Tyler is our pride and joy really,” Chris finishes off some story about five hundred baskets every night, that Josh was only half listening to as he poked his limp lettuce around his plate with his fork.

 

His mom had chipped in every so often about what his younger siblings were doing with their lives and how wonderfully they had been doing at school and what everyone was doing with their lives. It was as if Josh wasn’t even a part of the family and he was an outsider here to do a journalistic story on the brand new Dun-Josephs.

 

“But it’s so lovely to see you dating now Tyler,” Laura pipes up again and smiles at Jenna. “I was really worried for a moment there,” she giggles lightly to herself, but can’t stop herself glancing over to her own son, something that Josh immediately noticed.

 

“Oh, mom! Don’t be silly! What are the chances that two boys you were close to ended up as raging fags?” Josh replies sarcastically and glares at his mother.

 

“Joshua,” Chris says with a warning tone. “We don’t tolerate that kind of back-talk in this house,” he adds, and watches as Josh rolls his eyes the hardest he had done all evening.

 

“Well, as you brought it up,” Laura says, clearly looking for a segue into whatever she was thinking of, “why don’t you spend more time with Jenna and Tyler? Or even just Tyler, and see exactly what hanging around nice boys can be like?”

 

Josh’s immediate reaction is to scoff and laugh in his mother’s face, but that was until his mother’s words sank into his brain. He looks at her, mouth hanging open and confused again. His mom was saying he didn’t care if he hung out with Tyler. Why would he disagree with that?

 

“And maybe he can introduce you to some nice girls as well?” Chris adds, with another one of his wide smiles.

 

“Hang on,” Tyler interrupts, “why would I do that?”

 

“Tyler, it would be doing your part to help the less fortunate, who have yet to find their way,” his father says to him.

 

He knows deep down he should be incredibly insulted with this turn of events, but all he can think of is spending time with Tyler with no one caring.

 

“Yeah, come on Ty, lead me to the right path,” Josh says to him, the first thing he has said directly to him all night. He can feel his smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth.

 

“Oh fine,” Tyler says, and Josh can swear the denial and protest he just heard was all a front.


	13. Chapter 13

A week had passed. One week where Josh had not heard from Tyler, his mom or any of his family. He was beginning to think he had actually hallucinated the entire dinner – it wasn’t as if he knew what was going on most of the time anyway. If it didn’t sound so ludicrous in his own head, he would have thought the entire household had been taken over like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

 

So that was why Josh ended up sitting on the hood of his car in the wind and drizzle on a Monday afternoon watching as the doors fly open and students escape their oversized mansion-like school as the bell rings. He had to prove to himself that he hadn’t gone insane and he had to ease his own brain.

 

He sees Jamie leave amongst a group of other kids about his age. It was the first time that he had seen his cousin in his own environment where he didn’t realise he was being watched. As expected, the boy was the popular one and the rest of the boys surrounding him seemed to hang onto every word he said. A tall, skinny kid with a large mop of red frizzy hair and badly fitting clothes rushes past the group of boys, and Josh watches as Jamie intentionally trips him and he falls face first onto the gravel to a wave of laughter from the group who continue to walk past, ignoring the clear look for help from the kid on the floor.

 

Slipping off of the car, Josh walks over to the heap of red head in the middle of the car park and crouches down next to him. The boy looks up, surprised to see someone who was paying him any attention and Josh can see the signs of braces on his teeth and a thick smattering of freckles on his nose. He internally sighs and feels sorry for the kid who appear to be the epitome of every high school geek ever invented.

 

“Alright guy?” he asks and sticks his hand out to try and help him up.

 

The kid – probably only a freshman, sophomore at the oldest – stutters as Josh continues to look at him, but eventually grabs hold of the proffered hand and Josh helps him to stand up, the boy brushing the dust and mud off of the front of his black jumper and school pants.

 

“Thanks,” he manages to grind out, and Josh can see his face getting redder and redder with embarrassment, and Josh looks at him, a hint of amusement in his face.

 

“I’m Josh,” he introduces himself, and holds his hand out again.

 

“Bryan,” the kid – Bryan – replies and quickly shakes it before dropping it like it had burned him.

 

“Why don’t we get you back inside? See if someone can help with that?” Josh motions to a cut in the knee of his slacks and a hint of liquid red, indicating something was bleeding.

 

“Oh, no! My dad is gonna kill me!” Bryan starts to panic, dropping his bag on the ground next to the pile of books that had scattered when he fell, and fingers at his knee to see exactly how bad the cut was.

 

“Dude! C’mon, one thing at a time yeah? Let’s go get it looked at,” he reiterates, with some force behind his voice, and puts his hand on the kid’s shoulder and starts to guide him back inside the building.

 

Josh holds the heavy double door open for Bryan and he limps through it, holding onto his bag and now soaked books in his arms. It wasn’t until he had fully stepped into the main atrium that he was able to fully look around at the building.

 

“Holy cow!” he whispers, mouth hanging open as he takes in the extravagance around him.

 

The ceiling is made of wood, a light oak from the look of it, and carved ornately in to cherubs, woodland animals and angels. The wood comes down the side of the walls to intricately pieced together mosaic tiles on the walls, interspersed with some typical high school lockers and stone pillars. Josh can’t believe this is actually a school. All he can remember of his own is that it was grey inside and out, had lino tiles on the floor and the lights made everything feel yellow. This was like something out of a Harry Potter book.

 

“Yeah, the man who built it based it on some palace in England…” Bryan says as Josh continues to soak up the extravagant beauty of the school he was now standing in.

 

“Dude, this is a school though, right?” Josh asks the kid who giggles back at him.

 

“Excuse me can I help you?” a familiar voice comes from behind them, as Josh continues to look up. He turns quickly with the kid next to him, and sees the recognisable blond head come skipping down the few steps that led up to what appeared to be a reception area. “Oh! Josh! And…Bryan,” Jenna says as she recognises both of the boys standing in the huge atrium, clearly confused as to why Josh was standing with one of the students.

 

“Hi, er, Jenna,” Josh says at the same time Bryan says “hi, Miss Black,” shyly.

 

“I found Bryan outside and he seems to be cut up a bit,” Josh explains quickly and Jenna gestures for the two of them to follow her back to where she had come from, holding the surprisingly normal office door open for them to walk through.

 

“Oh dear!” Jenna laments as she looks over the young man, her eye also spying the blood leaking from the hole in his pant leg. “Bryan come over here, and we’ll get you cleaned up,” she says kindly, smiling at him at the same time, and Josh can’t help but smile with her.

 

She was wearing a powder pink sweater set and a plaid skirt, skimming just above her knee, and Josh can’t help but feel the same pang of jealousy he had experienced at his parent’s house the previous weekend. This was the kind of girl that his mom had probably wanted him to end up with, and it looked like it was the kind of girl Tyler was going to end up with. He had no idea exactly what was going on between him and Tyler, but there seemed to be this almost magnetism between them, and Josh couldn’t leave him alone now. He had had a taste of him, and he wanted more. But it seemed in needing more he would have to subject himself to the hurt and jealousy of seeing him around Miss Perfect.

 

“Were you here for Jamie, Josh or…?” Jenna asks conversationally as Josh gets lost in his own thoughts. He shakes himself back to the present before he answers. He watches her go and find the solid green first aid box.

 

“Oh, no,” he says, feeling the flush of red creeping up his neck and threatening to spread onto his face. He hadn’t quite come up with a plausible excuse as to why he was there and now he was having to think on his feet. Something he had never been too good at. “Uhm, I was here to see…if I could have Tyler’s number,” he says finally, coming up with a reason that was close to the truth. He didn’t think blurting out _“actually I was here to see if Tyler was up to flirt some more and maybe that might lead to a good hard fuck,”_ was something someone as pure as Jenna really wanted to hear.

 

“Well, he’s in the auditorium at the moment, working on something for the musical I think,” Jenna tells him.

 

Josh’s eyes widen in interest and he nods along with her. “Isn’t Jamie meant to be helping out with that?” he asks, suddenly remembering his cousin’s punishment from a week or so before.

 

“Oh, I think so, but this is just Tyler doing his ‘director’ bit. He’s a bit thorough,” Jenna laughs airily at the thought.

 

“Is it okay if I go and see him then?” Josh asks, almost too quickly and eagerly, and he catches himself before he can look like a puppy looking for his master.

 

“Oh, for sure! Just follow the corridor round and it’s right in front of you,” she says and points behind her to the hallway she was talking about.

 

Josh walks out of the room and down towards where he had been directed. He can’t help but look around at the pure elegance of the interior of the building, the solid wooden floors almost as beautiful as the carvings above him, but in a completely utilitarian way. He shakes his head in disbelief as he walks up towards large dark wooden double doors, red velvet curtains covering the inlaid windows on the inside, presumably to provide some sort of soundproofing during performances as well as providing some sort of theatrical dressing for the room.

 

The door softly squeaks as it opens and Josh slips in through the curtains and into the large darkened auditorium, the only light coming from an actual orchestra pit that was in front of the stage. He can see the abandoned instruments sitting next to chairs; waiting for their owners to return so they can continue to play pieces by Chopin or Beethoven. Josh smiles as he sees a lone trumpet that had been discarded by some clearly unimpressed teenager – remembering his own hatred for the instrument when he was at school.

 

He looks around the large theatre setting – the gradual tier of seating giving every position a perfect view of the stage. It was almost circular in a kind of amphitheatre style, but inside instead of being in the open air. Josh continued to be amazed at the extravagance of the school building as he hears light notes drifting towards him from the pit. He can’t make out the song or tune, but the flow of the music; the implicit surety of the player and the pure enjoyment that Josh can make out from the tune was calling the drummer forward and towards the bright light.

 

He slowly makes his way down the central steps, his well-worn black Vans making his footsteps almost silent as he moves. He finally reaches the small gate that separated the pit from the rest of the hall and he leans against the cherry wood gate, the height perfect for him to perch his elbows on so he can watch the pianist at work.

 

Tyler had either changed after the final bell had rung, or he had decided to dress more casual for the day. He was wearing dark blue, almost black skinny jeans and his own black Vans on his feet. He was swamped in an oversized black Ohio hoody, that made him look much smaller than he actually was. Josh smiles at the way he looked so innocent in front of him.

 

Tyler was oblivious to anyone else around him. He was lost in his own world, his sheet music spread along the top of the piano, a pencil sticking out from between his lips as he played the bars he was practising. Every so often he would stop what he was doing and note something down on the music, mumbling something at the same time, but at no point did he look behind him, or even appear to realise there was someone else in the room with him.

 

Finally – he wasn’t even sure how long it actually was – Josh clears his throat, deciding it was time that he stopped being a stalker and spoke to the man who he had been having some strange cat and mouse relationship with since he had met him.

 

Tyler jumps at the noise, the pencil dropping from his lips and clattering to the floor as he turns to see exactly who was in there with him. His eyes widen when he sees Josh standing there, relaxed and confident against the gate. Josh takes the rare moment of Tyler being disarmed to take the upper hand, and he slips through the gate and walks towards the man.

 

“So, I hadn’t heard anything,” he starts, walking up to the piano, and resting his head on his arms on the top of it so he can look at Tyler. “I thought I would see if you still had my number,” he adds, his brown eyes searching out Tyler’s until they were locked together. He sees Tyler swallow heavily before he seemingly finds his footing again and breaks the eye contact, gathering his papers together.

 

“Yeah, well, you didn’t seem to up for it, and I still don’t know how I feel hanging around with a dude who flirts with anything,” he says, finding the elastic band from around his wrist and securing his music together before standing, lifting the lid on the piano stool and throwing the pile of papers inside.

 

“Oh, I’m up for anything,” Josh says, his voice dropping slightly, clearly taking Tyler by surprise again. He watches as he reaches for a bottle of water, unscrewing the cap before bringing it to his lips. “I’m not up for a threesome with a girl though, so that might be awkward,” he says suddenly, and Tyler spays the water he was attempting to drink all over the keys in front of him, also catching Josh. “Oh dude, that was _gross_!” Josh cries and laughs loudly as he starts to wipe the water droplets off of his arms and the front of his tee shirt.

 

After a moment where Tyler looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up and get him out of the situation, Josh sees the glimmer of laughter in his eyes as he also bursts out laughing at the scene in front of him. “Did you do that on purpose?” he demands through the laughter, and that makes Josh laugh even harder.

 

Tyler stalks forward, towards the drummer who’s back was now leaning against the upright back of the piano, and he was gasping for breath through his continued fits of hilarity. He crowds into Josh’s personal space, and tries to get the other man to look directly at him – a feat that was becoming more and more difficult. Eventually, Tyler reaches out and grabs hold of Josh’s chin between his thumb and forefinger and makes his head stay still. Josh gasps slightly at the contact, but his toothy grin stays firmly in place on his face. Tyler looks him directly in the eye, and Josh catches his breath at the glint he sees there.

 

“There’s no girl,” is all Tyler says. “Any girl is for show,” he adds, and Josh can feel his eyes boring into his soul, as if he’s trying to convey something to him.

 

 Josh nods at him, and immediately feels a punishingly hard kiss pressed to his lips. It wasn’t a promise for anything, it wasn’t heated and clearly wasn’t meant to lead to anything else. As quickly as it was there it had stopped and Tyler had moved away, dropping his chin and moving back to the front of the piano to get something. He opens his mouth to say something, but Tyler is already walking out of the auditorium without as much as a backwards glance.

 

Feeling like he had definitely lost the upper hand this time, Josh smile to himself again and runs quickly after the man who had clearly woven his spell over him. As he runs up the stairs he realises that he would quite gladly walk through hell and back for that man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Sorry it's been so long since I updated. Writer's block is seemingly a real thing.
> 
> Please let me know what you think. Comments are like gold and I appreciate them all 
> 
> <3


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness! I am so sorry, I hadn't realised it had been an entire month since I updated - I suck I know!
> 
> Anyway, here we are...can we say it's to celebrate the return of our wonderful boys?
> 
> Please enjoy!

_Tyler – you busy tomorrow?_

_Josh – finish work at 2…y?_

_Tyler – meet me at school, should be fun_

 

\---

The cryptic message from the other man had arrived earlier that evening and now it was all Josh could do not to think about it.

 

The lights were all out around him and he was curled up on his side, trying to get some comfort despite the fact the base had all but collapsed in the middle and he was certain that someday soon he would need to be physically peeled off of the leather.

 

Once he had been dragged out of the auditorium with Tyler earlier that day they had immediately run into the blond girl who seemed to have a homing beacon for him. Despite his reassurances to the alternative, Josh still felt the slow build of anger and jealousy flare within him as she had presumptuously clasped the other man’s hand and pulled him close. The knowing smile on her face managed to wind Josh up even more, and he had had to excuse himself pretty quickly.

 

Rolling onto his back he throws an arm over his face as he remembers the faint musky smell of Tyler as he had pressed close to him. He groans faintly as his body seems to take all kinds of pleasure at the memory, and he feels the pressure starting to build in his boxers.

 

“Crying out loud, Dun,” he mutters to himself as he tries to will his erection to wilt. The one thing he refused to do was beat off with his cousin and aunt not ten feet away from him.

 

Throwing his duvet off of him he rolls off the seat and walks into the attached kitchen to try and find something that might distract him from his current thoughts. The clock on the oven says it’s just turning midnight and he sighs knowing it was going to be a long night for him.

 

Opening the refrigerator and basking in the cool breeze that wafts out to him, he then hauls out the gallon of milk and opens the lid, taking a swig from the bottle. It then occurs to him to check the sell by date on it, before pouring out a large glass and settling himself at the breakfast bar, putting his head in his hands and sighing as loudly as he dared.

 

A rumbling noise starts from the counter next to him and he quickly scoops it up before the vibrating can cause anyone else in the apartment to wake up. Expecting it to be Brendon forgetting the time difference he doesn’t even look at the caller ID as he answers it and whispers down the phone;

 

“Bren, its fricking midnight, no I don’t want to suck you off,” hoping the shock factor of him just saying that will finally cause his good friend to be dumbstruck.

 

The silence that follows makes Josh give himself a mini fist pump as for the first time since he met him, the outlandish extrovert had absolutely nothing to say to him.

 

“…I didn’t realise that was a service this number actually offered,” an unfamiliar voice suddenly pipes up from down the line and Josh almost drops his cell as he realises the person on the other end is not in fact Brendon.

 

“Crap!” Josh exclaims as he fumbles the handset before actually catching it and then holding it back to his ear again. “I’m so sorry to whoever this is, I really thought it was someone else,” he spews out more apologies as he almost knocks over his glass of milk, all the time looking over at the two bedroom doors of his family to make sure he didn’t wake them up.

 

“Josh?” the voice interrupts him as he continues to say sorry over and over again, and he stops immediately.

 

“Yeah?” he shuts up immediately at the almost sternness in the voice over the line.

 

“Are you dressed?” the strangely familiar voice asks and he’s so shocked at the question he takes a moment to look at the name on the screen.

 

“Tyler?” he asks, still not certain it’s definitely the other man on the line.

 

“Yes Joshua. I’m telling you, you really aren’t doing much to make me think those rumours aren’t true.”

 

Josh lets his head fall forward so it makes an audible _thunk_ down the phone that even Tyler can hear it.

 

“Have you just given yourself a concussion?”

 

“No,” Josh calls out, just loud enough that he can be heard but not wake anyone up. “Why do you want to know if I’m dressed?” he asks, picking up his phone again.

 

“Look out the window,” is all Tyler says to him.

 

“You’re all kinds of cryptic today,” Josh mutters and hears a low laugh from the other man. He stands up and works his way over to the curtained window, pulling back the drapes and peering through the condensation that had gathered there.

 

Standing in a pool of artificial orange light, and leaning against what appeared to be a Mercedes MLK, was the man that only the mere thought of had kept Josh awake. He feels his forehead furrowing into a look of delighted confusion and he knows that a wide smile is now stretching across his face.  

 

“So that would be a no, then,” Tyler says as the two men lock eyes through the glass. Josh’s eyes go wide and he looks down realising he’s only wearing boxers and a white vest.

 

“Give me…five?” he says hopefully and he can see a smile on Tyler’s face, even before he turns to obviously try and hide it from him.

 

“Fine, five minutes then I’m driving away,” he says, pacing in front of the black car, and then line goes dead as he hangs up.

 

Josh immediately lets go of the fabric and the darkness fills the room again. He throws the mobile onto the sofa and starts spinning in circles to try and find something suitable to wear. The problem was all of his clean clothes were in Jamie’s room and he couldn’t go in there without waking the sleeping beast. All he had available to him was what he had worn that afternoon or what he had worn to work and he really didn’t want to be seen in the same thing again.

 

Scratching his nose and mouth at his dilemma, he makes a decision and pulls his ripped jeans on and slips into his old black vans before pulling the shirt he had worn into work that morning – a band shirt from one of the groups he had played for in LA. He grabs his black hoody and a cap so he can hide the birds nest his purple hair had turned into while he was tossing and turning and digs around in his work bag where he knew he had some deodorant. He sprays it on and around him quickly before looking at his wrist to see he still had one minute left. He hoped Tyler had been joking about driving away, but there was no way he was going to test that theory.

 

He grabs his keys and his phone and makes sure to lock the front door after him and then literally runs down the stairs and out to the street at the front of his building. He stops in his tracks as he sees that Tyler has stopped pacing and is now leaning agains the hood of the car, breath taking in skinny jeans, and a black button up. Floral vans adorn his feet to complete the look. Josh stares, wide eyed and smiling as he looks at him.

 

“What?” Tyler asks as Josh continues to look at him.

 

“Nothing. I just. Can’t believe you’re here,” he admits and feels the blush creep up his face.

 

Tyler looks at the ground, clearly trying to stop the smile on his face. He shakes his head and looks back up. “Well, I’m definitely here,” he says finally and walks slowly over to Josh, reaching out and taking the drummer’s hand and pulling him towards his fancy European car.

 

“What are you doing here?” Josh asks, silently cursing himself for asking the question.

 

“I couldn’t wait til tomorrow,” Tyler replies simply with a shrug. They walk back to the car and he opens the passenger door for Josh. “And maybe I wanted to have you to myself for a while,” he adds just as Josh goes to get in.

 

He sinks into the luxurious leather seats and as the car door slams shut and his words sink into Josh’s brain, he feels a shiver go down his spine.

 

Tyler climbs into the driver’s seat and inserts the key into the ignition before selecting first gear and riving off into the night. He hits the standby button on the radio system and they drive in silence for a while before Josh’s brain gets the better of him.

“Tyler, none of that stuff you said about me is true, you know?” he says after clearing his throat.

 

A small hum comes from the driver’s seat and Josh flicks his eyes up to look and see what he was doing.

 

“My mom hates the fact I’m gay,” Josh goes on to say. “When my dad died, I was kinda just…abandoned, ya know?” Josh looks back down at his hands clasped in his lap. “It was best for everyone that I left,” he finishes and the silence continues – Tyler not saying anything in response.

 

After another agonising few minutes of silence, Tyler finally pulls into the parking lot of a nearby park; somewhere Josh had skateboarded a lot when he was younger and had to get out of the house. He smiles to himself at the memories until he remembers exactly where he was and who he was with.

 

He looks over at Tyler again and is surprised to see he’s looking over at him with a curious smile on his face. Tyler shifts in his seat, putting his arm on the back rest and angling his body towards Josh.

 

“Josh, if there was any chance of me even believing half the stuff your mom has said I wouldn’t be here,” he says softly to him. Josh looks confused. “I googled you,” Tyler shrugs and looks slightly embarrassed at the admission. “Found out you actually worked with a guy I went to college with,” he continues. “So I called him, and he just confirmed what I was already thinking.”

 

“And what was that?” Josh swallows thickly. He knows he should maybe be creeped out at the amount of stuff Tyler had just admitted, but he couldn’t help but feel flattered that the beautiful man in front of him had gone through so much effort to find out about him.

 

“That you’re sweet,” Tyler says, and reaches his hand over, sweeping away a stray lock of hair from Josh’s forehead. “And kind,” he removes the hat from his head and Josh winces as he knows just how bad his hair was looking. “And always looking out for everyone else,” and he inches closer in his seat as Josh leans in towards him, trying to hear him better as his voice quietens.

 

Tyler strokes his fingers through the purple hairs, and Josh keens into the touch, closing his eyes and just _feels_ the intimacy of the motion. He opens his eyes and almosts gasps as he meets the dark brown of Tyler’s gazing barely an inch from him.

 

“And that you are the most beautiful looking human I’ve ever seen,” he finishes, his breath ghosting over Josh’s nose and lips.

 

Josh’s gaze is locked with Tyler’s and he feels his tongue flick out and wet his lips quickly in anticipation. Tyler’s own eyes flick down and watch the minute motion hungrily and as he looks back at the drummer, Josh closes the last tiny gap between them and softly grazes his lips against the other mans.

 

It was nothing – a soft brushing of lips on lips, but that was all it took for the two to melt back together and become one in the darkness of the winter night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! All comments gratefully received and rewarded with internet ghost hugs :)
> 
> <3


End file.
